Supermarkets spell last orders at the pub

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Title – Supermarkets spell last orders at the pub
Source – The Times
Date – 30th August 2008

It is a subject we come back to time and time again; the decline of the local pub and the increase is alcohol sales through supermarkets. The figures tell us that by the end of 2009 more beer will be sold as an off-sale (to take home) then as an on-sale (for consumption on licensed premises). If we look back to the 1970’s the proportion of beer sold in pubs was a staggering 90%.

So what is the problem and how can it be resolved? One of the problems is that the many different lobbies tend to only reflect one side of the story. The pub sector naturally uses the argument of pricing, something they simply can not compete with the supermarkets on; The supermarkets use the argument of their competition and ultimately providing their customers (all of us) with ‘value for money’; the authorities don’t really know who to blame or how to address the problem of ‘binge drinking’, ‘alcohol abuse’ and preventing young people from obtaining alcohol; generally (and partly as a result of the Licensing Act 2003 wrestling the responsibility for licensing from magistrates to local authorities) there seems to be no independent unbiased body to deal with the problem with a balanced impartial approach.

The fact is that at this moment in time, it is the landlords and pubs that are losing out. With some sources quoting up to 36 pubs a week going out of business and a lack of tenants available to take vacant positions within the larger pub chain businesses; if the sector is not yet in crises it soon could be. The prospect of further turmoil seems to be just around the corner, with confidence in the money markets at an all time low, who knows if one of the big listed pub chains is potentially on the brink.

So what do pubs have to do? Fight harder for a level playing field? Have it publically recognised that they are part of the problem when it comes to alcohol related crime and disorder and alcohol related ill-health, but not the only or the worst problem? Maybe it is a combination of all of these things, but that is not all…

First and foremost they have to get their own house in order. No business can survive if their business model is not attractive to customers. People used to go to pubs because they served the best beer; there are now take-out products that are as good as many pubs can offer. Others went to pubs for Sunday roast, a treat for the whole family, beautifully prepared beautifully cooked food; these days we can buy whole roasts almost prepared for us in the supermarket. Finally people went to meet others and to be served by the landlord or landlady who knew their name and made them feel welcome; there is something the supermarkets can’t compete on. I preach it time and time again in this blog, service is everything, pubs have to become destinations that draw customers in. People working in pubs have to really grasp this concept if they want to succeed.

Just this weekend I visited a beautiful pub in Cumbria, at the end of a long hike we were all looking forward to a nice pub lunch. As we approached, the pub looked welcoming, beautiful flower displays welcomed us and the pub was clearly well kept. But all that hard work was wasted because the welcome we received was icy cold and the service by the young waitresses shocking to the point of almost being amusing. If they had just spent a fraction of the time and effort they obviously put into everything else (including the food which was delicious), into training their staff, they might have had more than our group of 7 and 4 locals to serve on a sunny Sunday lunchtime. You really can not blame the supermarkets for that.

At Beyond the Blue we provide the portfolio of BIIAB licensed retail sector courses, including the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH), the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) and the National Certificate for Designated Premises Supervisors (NCDPS) as well as bespoke courses for individual clients and Consultancy Projects that examine your business and develops business plans to set you on the path to success.

Please visit our website please visit at

www.btbl.co.uk

Shop’s alcohol victory

Title – Shop’s alcohol victory
Source – Staines Leader
Date – 28th August 2008

Here is another good example of where the 2003 Licensing Act provides a more flexible and ‘sensible’ approach to licensing. The Act allows for local representation, but also for that representation to be appeal against and for a sensible judgement and solution to be sought for both sides.

No business owner should be held liable for the wrongs of the previous owner, that as the basis for a complaint is a little absurd and no business owner should have their business compromised for being the victim of armed robbery. Equally residents should be allowed to have their concerns heard and where action is required it should be taken.

This type of case shows the licensing act working, not for one side or the other, but for sensible compromise. It allows the owner and premises licence holder to prove himself and to implement the highest standards of Responsible Alcohol Retailing both through those conditions imposed upon him and by taking measures that every alcohol retailer should be taking to meet their statutory requirements under the Act.

Understanding the Licensing Act 2003 allows business owners not only to maximise their opportunities within their businesses, but helps them to avoid, costly, time consuming and wholly avoidable actions that will force restrictions upon them. There are simple measures that can be taken by retailers to promote responsible alcohol retailing and provide themselves with a defence of due diligence; enforcing such measures can lead to retailers obtaining the support of the community rather than the community revolting against them at every turn.

We offer the portfolio of BIIAB courses including the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which covers the Licensing Act 2003 and gives candidates the knowledge to understand their place within the act, their responsibilities and their statutory rights. We also run the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) for front line staff which helps them to understand the basic responsibilities they have in the sale or supply of alcohol and provides their employer with a solid defence of due diligence.

Please visit our website please visit at www.btbl.co.uk

Off-licence wins licence battle over alcohol sales

Title – Off-licence wins licence battle over alcohol sales
Source – Staines Leader
Date – 21st August 2008

I will admit that I am unaware of the details of this particular case, past what is outlined in the article, but even from these few details licensees can take heart that at least some of the processes of the Licensing Act 2003 are working as they should.

One of the fundamental principles behind the act was that there would be an overall relaxation of the legislation. From the point of view of Personal Licence holders they were given more flexibility as their licenses were transferable between different premises, this gave them more flexibility in their work as they were no longer tied to specific premises with difficult and time consuming magistrates court to tackle whenever they moved from pub to pub. From the point of view of the premises licence holder their restrictions were relaxed especially in the area of operating times and they were free to apply for ‘24 hours licences’.

However the pay-back for this liberalisation was that licensing authorities, the police and ‘interested parties’ (i.e. local residents, local businesses, local community groups and local public services) had more power and opportunity to affect changes to the licences granted through closure orders, reviews and variations. The increased provision to add conditions to licences means that many more premises licence holders have found themselves falling foul of what became very restrictive and expensive conditions on their licences.

But all is not lost, having a good understanding of the Licensing Act 2003 should be a fundamental part of and licence holder’s knowledge base. With this knowledge comes an understanding of what would be considered fair and unfair, but more importantly what steps they can take to retail alcohol responsibly and thus challenge restrictive conditions.

Responsible Alcohol Retailing is not at all complicated and it is very profitable when you look at the bigger picture. Simply promoting the licensing objectives will help you run a successful business and impress your local authorities. Once this is achieved, with their support your time and money will be freed up from protracted negotiations over matters that need never become an issue in the first place. To match this, there is no question that responsible retailers attract more business then irresponsible ones in the long run and any good businessman knows that the long-run is what counts in business.

One of the first steps to responsible retailing is effective training. The one point of contention is this case seems to have been the training given to staff and the recording of that training. To resolve this issue, sending staff on a course such as the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) provides them with a nationally recognised Level 1 Qualification. Further progression and the qualifying course for Personal Licence Holders is the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH). At Beyond The Blue we don’t simply provide you with the basic information your will require to pass the multiple choice examination, but also additional information that will put it into context and give you even greater understanding.

Our approach gives you the information to understand the conditions on your licence and challenge your local authorities where conditions are unfair or restrictive. Where they are fair, we provide you with the information to understand the measures you have to take to improve in order to satisfy your local authority that you have implemented better business practices which they should now take into account. We also offer a Consultancy Service which can help your individual business address problems and improve to help them achieve their goals and where schemes such as Best-Bar-None are available, how to achieve these highly recognised and respected standards.

Please visit our website please visit at www.btbl.co.uk

Britain’s criminal economy

Title – Britain’s criminal economy
Source – The Times
Date – 8th August 2008

The staggering figures linked to Britain’s Criminal Economy will make many a FTSE100 company jealous, but rather than adding to the social fabric of the country and paying its fair share of the tax that sustains our society it does exactly the opposite and adds to the burden and cost both the government and individual businesses hundreds of millions of pounds to combat.

Very few businesses can ignore the potential effect of crime, some are lucky enough simply to need a good lock on the door, others employ small armies to combat it. In an increasingly technology driven world as more hi-the solutions are found so more hi-tech criminals emerge, with ever more complicated scams and schemes to defraud indiscriminately.

Alongside these more ‘modern’ criminal concerns, the ones we knew of old are as prevalent as ever and in many cases growing year on year:

• Violent crime involving guns from smuggled from Eastern Europe;


• Counterfeited and smuggled goods including alcohol and cigarettes that undermine legitimate businesses in the UK;


• Drugs that are responsible not just for the individual drug users problems, but lead to a raft of other criminal activity, unproductive employees, workplace violence and problems on licensed and unlicensed premises.

Organisations and businesses are all affected by different levels of crime and disorder and the solutions are as varied as the problems. At Beyond The Blue we have some of the solutions. As well as our Consultancy Services which specialise in the Security Industry, Licensed Retail Sector and Workplace Violence Solutions we offer:

• The National Certificate for Licensees – Drug Awareness course (NCLDA)


• Bespoke Drugs Awareness courses


• The National Certificate for Door Supervisors courses (NCDS)


• Conflict Management & Resolution Courses (CMR)


• Physical Intervention courses (PI)


• In-House Security Induction Courses (IHSI)

Please visit our website please visit at www.btbl.co.uk

More young people end up in hospital as price of heroin and cocaine falls

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Title – More young people end up in hospital as price of heroin and cocaine falls
Source – The Times
Date – 15th August 2008

With illegal drug use on the increase in young people and Class A drugs (especially Cocaine) increasing amongst the ‘young professionals’ 25-34 bracket, it points to a failure on the ‘war on drugs’ that most people are pretty honest about.

But it is a fight that must go on and as the fight grows, so must the response because we all know that drug dependency is not only a very big burden on our society, but the cause of much greater criminal activity.

Ironically many successful young professionals, who consider themselves ‘recreational drug users’, are really not in a better position then what we consider drug dependents to be. Much like problem gamblers they convince themselves that they are in control of their habit, which ironically is why they use the drug in the first place; to lose some of that self-control. The difference between them and the more traditional image of the drug addict, is that their disposable incomes feed their habits, as opposed to crime which feeds the habits of those drug dependents who don’t (or no longer) have high disposable incomes.

‘Recreational’ drug use has to an extent become acceptable in some arenas. How many people who work in high flying industries such as ‘the city’ can honestly say they don’t have colleagues who ‘dabble’ in the odd ‘line’; more importantly how many do anything positive about it?

Sadly more and more of these people willing to ignore these users will soon be able to add their name to the list of people who would be able to answer ‘Yes’ to the question “who knows someone who has been admitted to hospital because of drugs?”.

The problem is not going to get better if younger and younger people are taking class A drugs as a matter of habit; these are after all the next generation and it will only be two or three more years before they are the ‘young professionals’

Drug use leads to problems beyond the users themselves. In many organisations drug use endangers other customers or employees and in some cases even the organisation or business itself. In the Licensed Retail Sector, drug use can lead to reputations being lost, swiftly followed by business being damaged, followed shortly afterwards by premises licences being suspended or forfeited and large fines being issued. In other organisations employees have to deal with drug fuelled individuals with aggressive behaviour that can be unpredictable and very violent.

At Beyond The Blue we run bespoke drug awareness courses as well as nationally recognised qualifications such as the National Certificate for Licensees – Drug Awareness (NCLDA) and Conflict Management & Resolution Courses (CMR) that help those who work with or in environments where aggression and violence are just one of the sad consequences of drug use.

Please visit our website please visit at www.btbl.co.uk

Three pints of lager for a packet of Fish?

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Title – Three pints of lager for a packet of Fish?
Source – The Times
Date – 15th August 2008

It’s a very tough time, with the much muted ‘credit crunch’ in full swing, everyone is feeling the pinch; pubs are feeling it more than most. Off the back of all the other well documented woes the industry has recently battled through, the licensed retail sector has had to reinvent itself to a certain extent.

Being an average pub has no longer been enough, consumers who have been getting more discerning for a decade or more, are now not just looking for the latest thing they are looking for good value to boot.

The first step is to realise that average is now excellence; being OK will no longer cut it, staff need to adopt excellent customer service skills, premises need to be not just well presented but outstanding and you have to seek out the right customers.

To achieve all of this training of both management and employees is a vital first step. Once basic training is achieved in courses such as the National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) or the Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR), it is important to keep employees motivated and provide continued development. Those that succeed are those that realise that they can always improve, that there is always more to learn and those that are prepared to learn from their mistakes, but also to avoid too many mistakes by learning from others; those that fail are generally those people who think they already know it all.

At Beyond The Blue we are strong advocates of continued professional development. We know we can learn from the people we meet in our professional capacity as specialist in the Licensed Retail Sector, The Security Industry and providing solution to Workplace Violence through Conflict Management & Resolution training.

Our Consultancy Service can help you to develop your business, to examine those areas where you are succeeding and reinvigorate others that may be holding you back. We have provided some unique solutions that we have learned from those we have had the privilege to work with. Although this example of The Pigs pub in Norfolk is not our typical solution to reinvigorating a business, we admire the dedication and ingenuity of management of this premises in looking at their business in such a unique way and providing a USP that has not only worked for their local community, but now has achieved national recognition. How much does such publicity cost? Well in this case no more than hard work and a little lateral thinking.


Please visit our website please visit at www.btbl.co.uk