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By Matt Furnell, 14/03/2012 9:32 am

Greene King Pub Partners has just launched a whole range of online e-learning modules for their licensees and staff.  The easy to use system allows them access to separate modules, each designed to complement Greene King’s award winning classroom training programme.

The eight e-learning modules are cost effective and easy to use at £15 per person and include Customer Service, Bar management, Food Safety Level 2 and Licensing and Social Responsibility for England and Scotland.  They can be accessed 24/7 meaning licensees have the flexibility around their business.  All staff can access the training and self-train to a qualified, certified level, saving employers’ time and resources.

Speaking about the e-learning launch, managing director for Greene King Pub Partners, Simon Longbottom said, “This style of learning is essential for our licensees who are already time pressured running their own businesses but it is also exactly the right format for many of those working in their pubs.  It’s been identified that those aged between 17 and 30 learn the most using technology.  Providing the courses in this way, with immediate access, is vital to their development and that of the service within our pubs”.

E-Learning is available to all pubs via the Greene King Pub Partners Licensee extranet, PubPartners.net.  Licensees can fund the courses using their central training fund or as an additional cost if they wish to invest more in training.

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By Matt Furnell, 21/02/2012 8:19 pm

Three Greene King licensees have reached the semi finals of the BII Licensee of the Year awards, 2012. Victoria Steadman who runs the Whitmore Arms in Orsett, Neil Ainsworth of the Argyll in Henley on Thames and Johnny Bramwell, manager of the White Horse, Emmers Green, Reading. All operate Greene King pubs, Victoria and Neil being tenants and Johnny a manager at only 24 and will now go through to the final stage of judging.

Speaking about the news, Simon Longbottom, managing director for Greene King Pub Partners said, “It’s fantastic news that two of our extremely valued licensees have been recognised in this way. To reach this stage alone shows that they have excellent business standards and strive to deliver the very best customer service through a joint effort with their teams. I wish them the very best of luck in the final stage”.

Adding Richard Lewis, managing director for Greene King Local pubs said, “Johnny is one of our youngest managers and reaching this level at such a young age is outstanding. He has a brilliant management style, is able to really engage his team and is extremely well liked by his customers in this very local community pub and we all wish him well throughout the final stage”.

Greene King operates 2,500 managed, leased and tenanted pubs across England, Wales and Scotland and employs circa 20,000 people.

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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, 14/07/2011 9:07 am

Running through the town centre with a decorated pram, stopping for a swift half at each pub along the way, is not the usual way to spend a Sunday afternoon. But for one day each year, the Kimberley Pram Race sees residents of the Nottinghamshire town do just that, all in the name of charity.

On Sunday (10 July) 35 runners took part in the annual tradition to raise money for Help For Heroes.  And to fuel the fancy dress mad dash, five Greene King pubs supplied free Carling for the runners as they raced to the finish line, competing for the title of ‘best dressed pram’.

The race, which raises at least £1000 annually, has been going since 1973 and in recent years has been supported by Greene King, with free beer for the competitors at each of their five pubs along the route, which are The Lord Clyde, The Gate Inn, The Queens Head. The Cricketers Rest, The Nelson and the Railway Inn.

This year Greene King also provided a curtain-sided lorry as a stage for local musicians who entertained the crowds throughout the afternoon.

Event organiser Ian Campbell said the pram race brings the whole of Kimberley together and Greene King’s support is invaluable to the event.

“Without the beer there is no pram race. We appreciate the support of Greene King and the pubs who kindly serve the competitors. It’s an important charity event, with all the money raised coming solely from street collections on the day. This year, all funds raised will go to Help For Heroes.”

 Rick Nicholls, business development manager for Greene King, said: “All the pubs involved get into the spirit of the day and we’re glad to support such a popular event. The pram race is always one of the busiest trading days for pubs in Kimberley, which goes to show what a community event it really is.”

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By Matt Furnell,

Greene King Pub Partners has won the award for Tenant Track Pub Company of the year, it was revealed at the Tenanted Pub Company Summit on Wednesday 28 June. Greene King won the accolade after receiving high scores from 100 of its licensees, as part of research carried out by him! research & consulting.

Five hundred tenants working with the country’s top pub companies were surveyed for their opinions on factors such as advice provided to help tenants grow sales, training, fairness of the contractual agreement, promotions, and website.

Tom Fender, Managing Director of him! research & consulting, presented the key findings from the Tenant Track programme at the recent Tenanted Pub Company Summit, run in association with the Publican’s Morning Advertiser and M&C Report.

The main objective of the Tenant Track research programme is to help members of the industry learn from each other and to identify best in class performance. Tom said: “At the end of the day, ‘a rising tide lifts all ships’ – and if each pub co can improve, the industry will improve. As well as showing the best performers in the industry, the research also demonstrates that there is still plenty more that pub co groups could be doing to support their tenants better.”

Greene King received the highest satisfaction ratings against Scottish & Newcastle, Punch, Admiral and Marston’s. Tom added: “Many congratulations to Greene King who have clearly being doing a lot of work in supporting their tenants to improve their businesses, such as setting up training programmes for licensees and regional business development managers, updating their code of practice with tenants and more.”

Simon Longbotton, managing director of Greene King Pub Partners said: “This is a fantastic result. We’ve been working extremely hard to ensure that out licensees have a successful partnership with us, developing initiatives such as the customer experience surveys, post graduate diploma in multi-site retailing for business development managers and out Business Builder and Know How support packages for our licensees, and we’ll continue to focus on these over the next few months.”

ENDS>> 

About Tenant Track – Each year him! research & consulting speaks to 500 pub tenants of Scottish & Newcastle , Greene King, Punch, Admiral and  Marston’s pubs to get their thoughts and opinions of their Tenant Pub company and the service they provide to the tenants. 

About him! research & consulting – him! has, for 40 years, helped retailers, service businesses and suppliers to understand their customers… and sell more to them.   A consulting firm with an exceptional commitment to research, we have conducted over 15 million moment of truth “conversations”, during shopping, giving robust database confidence and predictive skill.  Our current 120+ blue chip client relationships are based on involvement in one or more of a number of exclusive customer tracking programmes or bespoke research-based consulting, making us experts in shoppers and shopping.

CONTACT

For more information please contact Georgina Wild, Marketing Manager on Georgina.Wild@him.uk.com 020 7611 0404/ 07920 566723

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By Matt Furnell, 16/05/2011 11:49 am

Greene King Pub Partners has launched a Franchise style agreement this week following a highly successful trial of nine pubs.  The franchise concept will be rolled out across 50 pubs within the leased and tenanted business over the next twelve months and focuses on community town and suburban sites with opportunity for market share growth.  Developed around franchise principles, the concept provides a proven pub package based on Greene King’s retailing “know how”.

Speaking about the launch, managing director for Pub Partners, Simon Longbottom said, “We developed this concept over the last nine months and wanted to make absolutely sure it worked as a model before we launched.  We know from our trials that it provides a platform for entrepreneurs to thrive in the highly competitive urban community segment.  It’s based around the franchise model, capable of multi site rollout and, we’re seeing some great businesses delivering net sales of on average between £7-11k per week and a minimum franchisee income of £45k per annum.  It’s all about sharing the risk and return”. 

Potential franchisees can benefit from the business opportunity with a minimum start up investment of £30,000.  The turn key approach provides a pub on a plate with a high level of support for the franchisee including:

• Wet and dry offer proven to drive market share in the suburban community market
• Clear operating standards and procedures
• EPOS till systems for improved licensee controls
• Sky and electronic music and entertainment systems on a 50:50 cost split
• Rent lower than a standard tenancy with a franchise fee linked to customer service and a 2% marketing charge on net turnover
• Food and drink supplied by Greene King and their channels taking advantage of the scale and buying power of the pub group and providing attractive cost prices
• Capex investment
• Fully supported marketing plans
• Detailed mystery guest and audit programme focused on driving sales.

Adding, Longbottom said, “We’re looking for operators with strong retailing skills, who are self motivated and can create and build a successful team dedicated in delivering the highest standards of customer service within their pub. Each franchisee undergoes a two week fully funded training programme, alongside on site pub staff training to ensure the standards and quality of the customer experience match that of the offer.  

The support this formula provides allows franchisees to take on a successful concept with the assurance they’ll be able to make a minimum of £45,000 income per year.  The franchisee pays a below market rent and then a franchise fee based on a percentage of sales.  The higher service and standard scores they achieve the lower the percentage they pay. So it’s very much a joint venture approach – allowing costs to the business to fluctuate with turnover and delivery of great quality service rewarded.  The franchisee has the benefit of knowing they’re working with the full backing of Greene King’s “know how” and that we both have skin in the game”. 

Greene King has taken advantage of its managed house food cost prices and food development expertise to devise a menu offering value for money and competitive pricing for the pubs.  All pubs receive full kitchen packages, menu and promotional POS. 

David Knott and Robert Lamb are licensees from the Orange Tree in Braintree, one of the first trial sites within the Pub Partners estate.  The pub has seen sales grow from £2.7k per week to over £10k net since the conversion.  David said, “This idea is fantastic as it allows you to walk straight into a pub and operate it successfully.  You complete the training and follow the operating procedures and you have a busy pub.  Everything has been developed to serve the community market, with the pricing set exactly how you need it.  It’s operating your own business within a certain framework.  That’s not restrictive but it gives you the support you need so the pub remains successful”.

Greene King Pub Partners is in discussions with the British Franchise Association to gain accreditation for their franchise concept.   Currently the agreement is for 6 years with an 18 month break clause but this may change with franchise accreditation.  All those pubs on the existing 6 year agreement will be offered the new franchise agreement. Pubs will be advertised on the GreeneKingpubs.co.uk website.

ENDS

Pictured: David Knott and Robert Lamb of the Orange Tree and internal pictures of the Franchise concept pub.

Press contact: Elaine Beckett, PR & Communications Manager, Greene King Pub Partners, Tel: 07974 132844.

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By Matt Furnell, 04/05/2011 12:15 pm

There was a right royal knees-up on Friday at The Cottage in Upper Bucklebury, home parish of just married Kate Middleton, as licensees helped local customers and the world’s media celebrate the big day in style.

Joining regulars on the barstools on Friday 29 April were journalists and crew from the world’s media including ITV’s Daybreak Kate Garraway, Australia’s Channel 7 and the American channel CNBC. All channels streamed live coverage and reaction to the rest of the world as the country and Upper Bucklebury celebrated the ceremony.

Licensees Gary and Amanda Bush, who lease The Cottage from pub operator and brewer Greene King, invited local residents to toast the newlyweds alongside the TV crews with a day packed full of activities and entertainment for all the family.

Early party-goers were treated to free breakfast baps, setting everyone up for the day-long event which ended with a stunning £6,000 fireworks show. Customers watched the happy couple tie the knot on a giant screen while children were entertained with a rodeo, bungee run and football challenge. Candy floss, an all-day hog roast and barbeque kept energy levels topped up while a giant real ale tent and flowing pink champagne meant no-one went thirsty.

Licensee Gary said: “We were delighted to offer the local community a place to celebrate the happy day in Duchess Catherine’s home village. We’re the only pub in Bucklebury and wanted to really go to town, especially as we were playing host to the world’s media. It was a truly fantastic day and we thoroughly enjoyed toasting the bride and groom with our regulars and familiar faces from TV.”

The Cottage, run by Gary and Amanda since January also hosted a live broadcast by the Meridian news team the night before the wedding, with Daybreak and international teams broadcasting live from the pub on the day itself.

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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,

27 Apr 2011 – Strong trading momentum continues to year-end; acquisition further enhances London presence

Greene King announces a pre-close trading update for the 51 weeks to 24 April 2011.

Strong trading momentum has continued throughout the second half of our financial year through to our year-end. Good weather across the UK has undoubtedly helped trading in the last few weeks, but our continued strong growth is driven by our focus on strategically important categories such as food and the consistent delivery of our industry-leading customer value, service and quality across the business.

Our expanding Retail business is the engine for our ongoing growth and sector outperformance.

Greene King Retail like-for-like (LFL) sales growth is 4.7%, implying 8.2% growth since week 35, the last week to have been impacted by snow. Our largest, and award-winning, retail brand, Hungry Horse, now has 158 outlets and is achieving LFL sales growth of 10.1%. Food continues to grow in importance for Greene King Retail, with LFL food sales growth of 8.2% driving expected sales participation towards 40% for the year. Belhaven retail LFL sales growth is now 4.0% and the recently acquired Cloverleaf business is delivering strong LFL sales growth. We expect margins for the full year in Greene King Retail to be slightly ahead of last year.

Pub Partners remains in growth after 48 weeks, despite the challenges faced by the overall tenanted and leased sector. LFL EBITDA is now +0.8% and average EBITDA per pub is +1.9%. We continue to invest some of our growth into providing long-term support for our licensees to help improve both their customer offer and the overall trading environment in our tenanted and leased pubs.

Our brewing businesses continue to outperform their markets: Brewing Company total volume is +2.0% with own-brewed volume (OBV) at -2.5%, although since week 35, OBV has been in line with last year; our core English ale brands, Greene King IPA, the UK’s no.1 cask ale, Old Speckled Hen, the UK’s no.1 premium ale, and Abbot Ale, the UK’s no.2 premium cask ale are level with last year; and volume of our market leading Scottish ale brand, Belhaven Best, is +1.8%.

We have recently completed the integration of both Belhaven and Cloverleaf, while earlier this month, we announced the completion of negotiations with our banks which resulted in a new, five-year, £400m, revolving credit facility to support our retail expansion strategy.

Our balance sheet and cashflow remain healthy and in line with our expectations.

Acquisition

In line with our strategy to expand and improve the quality of our Retail estate, we are pleased to announce the completion of the acquisition of Realpubs for a total consideration of £53.1m. Realpubs currently operates 14 premium London pubs, of which all but one are freehold, and their offer is a well developed and highly successful one, targeting the premium, pub dining customer within London. The acquisition is being funded by our existing bank facility.

These are large, highly profitable and well invested sites with forecasted average weekly turnover of £24.5k in 2011 and forecasted average EBITDA per site of £450k. The implied forward EBITDA acquisition multiple is 8.4x. Food is currently 33% of sales and growing strongly, with around half of all sales being driven by customers coming to eat in the pubs.

Malcolm Heap and Nick Pring, the two founders of Realpubs, have been retained for a minimum of two years. They will become part of the Retail management team helping to spearhead our growth and offer development in London, including the conversion of a significant number of existing Greene King pubs to the Realpubs premium urban local concept, and within the premium segment on a national basis.

Rooney Anand, Greene King chief executive comments:

“Driven by our clear and consistent strategy of delivering excellent customer value, service and quality, trading at Greene King has been strong and as a result, we remain confident for the outcome for the year. We continue to supplement strong underlying organic growth with targeted, value-creating acquisitions to accelerate our strategic aim of growing our Retail business to around 1,100 pubs and building the best Retail estate in the UK.

We are excited by today’s acquisition as it fits well with our strategy, by further strengthening our London presence and accelerating the development of our premium pub offer. The addition of Realpubs takes the total number of Greene King sites within the M25 to 217 and positions us strongly ahead of, during and after the Olympics in London in 2012, when London and its pubs and restaurants will be visited by tourists from across the world.”

For further information:

Greene King plc
Rooney Anand, Chief Executive Tel: 01284 763222
Ian Bull, Group Finance Director

Financial Dynamics
Ben Foster Tel: 020 7831 3113

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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.