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By Matt Furnell, 25/01/2012 9:46 am

Old English Inns up and down the country will be serving up award winning fish and chips from now on after winning the Best Foodservice Outlet Serving Fish and Chips at the National Fish & Chips Awards 2012 this week. 
 
The hotel and restaurant chain’s fish and chips is its biggest selling dish and they expect sales to swell following the recognition.
 
Speaking about their success, managing director for Old English Inns, Jonathan Webster said, “This is a fantastic accolade for us.  Fish and Chips are as much a British Institution as real ale, pubs and country inns are, so now our customers know they’ll get the best fish and chips along with our award winning ales in great pubs and inns up and down the country.  A perfect combination”.
 
Old English Inn’s who have 100 inns throughout England beat off competition from Marston’s pub company who were also finalists in the same category.

Find out more about Old English Inns

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By Matt Furnell, 28/04/2011 1:12 pm

As the Royal Wedding fast approaches, licensees of The Cottage in Upper Bucklebury, home parish of bride-to-be Kate Middleton, are busy making preparations to help local customers celebrate the big day in style.

Licensees Gary and Amanda Bush, who run The Cottage with pub operator Greene King, are inviting local residents to join in the fun with a day packed full of activities and entertainment for all the family.

Free breakfast baps will kick off the celebrations at 10.30am, with the party running all day and ending with a stunning £6,000 fireworks show at 9.00pm. Other plans include a rodeo, bungee run and football challenge, while on the menu will be candy floss, an all-day hog roast and barbeque.

No one will be going thirsty either with a beer tent and pink champagne and strawberries flowing all afternoon. And of course, there will be a giant screen to watch the happy couple tie the knot.

Licensee Gary said: “We’re delighted to offer the local community a place to celebrate the happy day in Kate Middleton’s home village. We’re the only pub in Upper Bucklebury and wanted to really go to town with the celebrations. It will be a fantastic day and we look forward to welcoming all our regulars to toast the new bride and groom.”

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By Matt Furnell, 12/04/2011 1:30 pm

Enjoy the Taste of Suffolk with Greene King

St Edmunds Real Beer & Food Festival at Greene King
Saturday 21st May & Sunday 22nd May
Greene King Brewery Gardens, Bury St Edmunds

The food & drink event of 2010 is back!

If you are interested in quality food and drink and want to sample a true taste of our fantastic region, you will love the “St Edmunds Real Beer & Food Festival”. Now in its second year, the Festival attracted over 4,000 visitors last summer, and organisers at Greene King are expecting even more success this May.

A wide range of top quality local food and drink producers will be joining the Suffolk brewer to promote their wares, offering opportunities to sample as well as to buy.  Among the delights will be locally produced smoked cheese, cured beef, jam, chutney, whisky, cider, premium sausages, seafood, ice cream, fudge – and of course, the finest real ales in the world!

There will also be live music in the gardens, food demonstrations, tutored tastings and beer master classes over the weekend. Families are welcome and we even have activities for the children, so get these dates in the diary!

Stand holders include Jimmy’s Farm, The English Whisky Company, Rodwell Farm homemade cheese, , Powters Newmarket Sausages, the Chilli Company, Yum Yum Tree Fudge, Pinneys Oysters of Orford and many more.

The ‘Festival’, which is being held in the Greene King brewery gardens in Bury St Edmunds takes place on the opening weekend of the Bury St Edmunds Festival, and is open Saturday 21st, 10am-6pm and Sunday 22nd May, 10am-5pm. Tickets are £3 each and are available from the Greene King Visitor Centre on 01284 714297, or from the Apex in Bury St Edmunds. Car parking is available for £2.

Join up to the ‘St Edmunds Beer’ Facebook group (www.facebook.com/stedmunds) for regular updates and announcements. For more information please email realbeerandfoodfestival@greeneking.co.uk.

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By Matt Furnell, 14/02/2011 11:10 am

Henry Cripps and his wife Katherine are celebrating that both their pubs, The Greene Oak in Oakley Green and the White Oak in Cookham have entries in the renowned 2011 Michelin Red Guide and that’s just after being in the business for five years.

Henry and Katherine at the White Oak in Cookham

The guide is the oldest and best known in the world highlighting the most exceptional chefs and eateries that can be found.  Speaking about the news, Henry said, “This is fantastic and it just shows that our hard work and dedication to wonderful service and food has paid off.  We’ve two teams at our pubs that keep our standards so high and without them we couldn’t have made them so successful.  We’re absolutely thrilled to have both pubs in such an influential guide”.

Henry and Katherine took over the Greene Oak with Greene King in 2006 and then the White Oak in 2008, transforming both into discerning dining pubs that have become well known for their outstanding food, service and surroundings.

Andy Spencer, business development director for Greene King encouraged Henry to take on the Greene Oak back in 2006, he said, “Henry and Katherine are natural hosts and this shows in how they operate both their pubs.  Their commitment to the very best experience a customer could want is shown in everything they do and we at Greene King are extremely pleased that their commitment has paid off and they’ve been recognised in this way.  It’s well deserved”.

Henry Cripps and wife Katherine, who is the daughter of TV and radio personality and broadcaster, Sir Terry Wogan operate their businesses using the motto “Use Better Food for Better Business” have also seen their pubs entered into the famous Sawday’s guide this year too.

 ENDS

PRESS CONTACT: ELAINE BECKETT, PR & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER, GREENE KING PUB PARTNERS, TEL: 07974 132844

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By Matt Furnell, 01/12/2010 12:15 pm

The Chestnut Horse pub in Great Finborough re-opened its doors this week with new licensees at the helm.  Experienced landlady Angela Crocker has taken on her second pub with partner Alan Sanders bringing the quaint traditional English pub back to life.

Angela and Alan at their new pub the Chestnut Horse

Revamped interior and bar welcome customers back with the guarantee of proper home cooked food from the newly installed kitchen.  Speaking about the re-opening, Angela said, “This is such a lovely pub in a beautiful setting.  I want to make it famous for what it is, a real country pub with good food and good ales.  We’re both really looking forward to welcoming customers back and new ones through the doors so they can enjoy the Chestnut Horse again”.

Business Development manager for Greene King, Paul Devine, the owners of the pub said, “Angela already runs a brilliant pub, the Magpie in Combs Ford nearby and wanted to spread her wings further and the Chestnut Horse was the perfect place for both Angela and Alan to take a business together.  It’s great to have them on board as the licensees and for Angela to bring her special qualities here to develop another proper pub with quality customer service.  We wish her and Alan the very best with the new venture”.

Ends

Press Contact: Elaine Beckett, PR & Communications Manager, Tel: 07974 132844, Email: elainebeckett@greeneking.co.uk

Pub Contact: Angela Trotter, Tel: 07775 521059

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By Matt Furnell,

Great competition to win an iPad with Greene King Head Brewers Club website.  Just visit the website and enter your details.

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By Matt Furnell, 27/10/2010 8:32 am

With tongue firmly in cheek, Greene King IPA is today (22nd October) unveiling a new national marketing campaign, Man Deserves a Proper Pint that celebrates men’s everyday “heroic” deeds.

The £1m campaign recognises how men often feel they deserve to treat themselves for all the “arduous” jobs they do at home. Trapping scary spiders, blowing up the kids’ paddling pool or clearing up dog mess – these tasks are undoubtedly deserving of the richest of rewards: a proper pint of ale, a Greene King IPA.

The ads reinforce Greene King IPA’s credentials as a “proper” pint with real, natural ingredients. The tagline for the adverts, ‘Real beer brewed in Bury St Edmunds since 1799’ reflects the ale’s local ingredients, traditional brewing methods and proud Suffolk heritage.

Dom South, marketing director for Greene King Brewing Company said “The new campaign focuses on modern man and the high regard in which he views his efforts around the house. It’s an amusing take on how even the smallest of mundane tasks can take on Olympic proportions.

“The eye-catching imagery is intended to provoke a self-knowing chuckle among men, but should also cause wry amusement among women, who will no doubt recognise the tendency among men to ‘big up’ the contribution to household chores. It will be great to see the campaign create a bit of banter around who deserves a proper pint and what heroics they have carried out to deserve it!”

The ads will feature in national newspapers and men’s lifestyle magazines. They are due to run for five months and will be seen by 14 million people. An additional campaign will support the England Rugby team sponsorship during autumn internationals at the home of rugby, Twickenham.

Cask ale continues to be the rising star in the drinks market, consistently outperforming the total beer market and Greene King has been supporting this growth with massive investment in the ale category and in its highly popular, award-winning brands. The brewer has Red Tractor accreditation for all its beers, which are brewed using English hops, the finest local barley malted just two miles from the brewery and water from the ancient chalk wells of Bury St Edmunds.

“The Man Deserves a Proper Pint campaign will act as a rallying call for drinkers to head to the pub to enjoy the ultimate proper pint – Greene King IPA of course,” concludes Dom.

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By Matt Furnell, 12/10/2010 9:00 am

Greene King Pub Partners licensees are set to benefit from a new programme of customer experience surveys, launched this October as part of their Value, Quality and Service campaign.  The initiative aims to provide consumer insight helping their leased and tenanted licensees build quality and sustainable businesses by acting on the detailed feedback.

The new programme will focus on each leased and tenanted pub receiving a visit four times a year with genuine customers reporting back on their experience in five key areas:
• Impressing customers
• Bar service with a smile
• Fantastic pub food
• Outstanding impressions
• Clean and fresh facilities

An overall customer satisfaction score and a customer advocacy score will be contained within the feedback.  All comments and scores will be available on PubPartners.net, Greene King’s comprehensive online business tool, enabling licensees to improve specifics within their trading environment.

Managing director for Pub Partners, Simon Longbottom endorses the scheme, “Research has shown us that customer spend is directly influenced by the level of service they’ve received and the better the service the more profit a licensee can make.

 “By seeing what is often right in front of your eyes and making positive changes as a consequence of this, you can increase annual profits by thousands of pounds.  High standards of service are vitally important to customers and a business’s success.  That’s why we are providing the service free of charge to our licensees”.

Retail Eyes an independent company who has previously provided customer experience surveys to all new Greene King licensees in their first year will provide the service.  The first visits began in September and Pub Partners aims, through the package, to enable licensees to increase market share, drive customer spend and improve customer advocacy.

ENDS

Press Contact: Elaine Beckett, PR & Communications Manager, Greene King Pub Partners, Tel: 07974 132844, email: elainebeckett@greeneking.co.uk

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By Matt Furnell, 10/06/2010 4:03 pm

Justin Adams, managing director of Greene King brewing company, has gone back to the floor at the Buxhall Crown pub near Stowmarket to help with the pub’s first ever beer festival.

The pub’s landlord, Barry Davis, secured Justin’s help after ‘winning’ it at a charity auction. The brewing boss was one of over 50 executives from Greene King whose time was auctioned off to licensees in order to raise money for the company’s nominated charities: Sport Relief and the Dallaglio Foundation. The total amount raised by Greene King from the auction and from a Paris to London bike ride now stands at over £65,000.

Justin’s shift consisted of working non-stop in and around the pub to help with the beer festival. He was kept busy helping to pull pints for a host of queuing customers as well as keeping an eye on the cellar and taking his turn at cooking on the barbecue.

Speaking after the event, licensee Barry Davis said: “Hats off to Justin for being such a great sport. It’s his team at Greene King who brew, market, sell and distribute the beer, so it seemed appropriate to get him doing the other most important job in the beer industry: pulling and serving the pints.

“We had number of different beers on tap for the day, from Ruddles County and St Edmunds to The Reverend James and Bomber County. The beer festival gave people a chance to sample real ale and learn all about it from the ultimate expert. Alongside the cracking barbecue for customers, we raised some much needed funds for Sport Relief.”

Justin Adams added: “The Buxhall Crown is a great example of a pub serving its community - fantastic food, excellent beer and a tremendous atmosphere. The beer festival was a good way to raise the profile of the pub and attract new customers. I’m sure that those people who came for the first time will become regulars.   

“It’s been a while since I’ve worked behind the bar – it was a good reminder of how much hard work it is and how important it is to train people properly in selling and serving real ale. Congratulations to Barry and his team for running such a great pub and raising some much needed money for two great causes.”

Ends

For further information please contact James Cameron jamesc@consolidatedpr.com or Lottie Dutton lottied@consolidatedpr.com on 020 7781 2300

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By Matt Furnell, 19/05/2010 10:17 am

The John Barleycorn pub in Cambridge has been accredited as
members of Cask Marque, passing the test with flying colours

The John Barleycorn pub in Duxford, Cambridge has scooped yet another recognition for the quality of its beer.  The pub gained Cask Marque, an independent accreditation for serving the perfect pint of cask ale with a phenomenal 100% score. 

During a mystery visit to the John Barleycorn, the undercover judges tried a selection of beers and ales ranging from Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale and Old Speckled Hen to the more unusual tipple of Barleycorn Best Bitter.  The pub has since received a plaque, framed certificate and merchandising material to inform its customers of the award.  The news comes as cask ale sales in pubs recently increased 5.7 per cent, according to new figures .

Licensee Bernard Lee is thrilled that the pub’s hard work and attention to detail has been recognised.  He said, “We are chuffed to bits to have been recognised as a member of Cask Marque.  It is a really great achievement and is a credit to the hard work of our team.  Cask ale plays a huge part in our success and I’m ecstatic for everyone at the pub.  We concentrate on keeping our cask ales in tip-top condition, and pride ourselves on giving the locals great service in a place where they can soak up the friendly atmosphere.”

Greene King regional manager, Phil Arnold said, “This is a fantastic result for the pub and Bernard. Cask ale is the best drink there is when served in good condition, and the John Barleycorn knows a thing or two about making this happen.  Lots of pubs are taking advantage of the renewed interest in real ale and more of our licensees like Bernard are doing their bit to make sure everyone can enjoy a good pint of cask ale and first rate service.”

Ends

For further information on the event, please contact Hew Leith hewl@consolidatedpr.com or Lottie Dutton lottied@consolidatedpr.com on 020 7781 2300

Notes to Editors:

About Greene King

Greene King Pub Partners has over 1,300 tenanted and leased pubs in the UK and is part of Greene King, the brewing and beer business responsible for Greene King IPA, the country’s best selling cask beer, and Belhaven, the Scottish brewing, beer and pub operator.

About the Cask Marque scheme
The scheme is operated by an independent body called Cask Marque Trust which is a limited company, limited by guarantee, and a non profit making organisation.

Pubs that join the scheme will be visited unannounced by an independent assessor twice a year.   The assessor will check all cask ales on sale for temperature, appearance, aroma and taste.