CHARLES WELLS SENDS HAPPY NEW YEAR MESSAGE TO LICENSEES
As VAT was restored to 17.5%, licensees of Charles Wells Pub Company received some positive news to help their businesses in the New Year.
The Bedford based brewery pub operator confirmed that price increases applied by its main supplier, Wells and Young’s Brewing Co Ltd, on 1st January will be absorbed until at least 1st April 2010. The company has also agreed to hold any duty increase on beer, wine and spirits that’s likely to be included in the Chancellor’s budget until the same date.
“We recognise that 2010 could bring a triple attack on licensee margins” explained Sales and Marketing Director, Peter Wells, “with changes to VAT and duty adding as much 8p to the price of a pint of beer before supplier increases are factored in. By taking decisive action now, we expect to ease the impact for our customers during a traditionally quiet trading period and ensure that these external factors don’t all hit home at once. This is proving to be even more important than we expected, as their trading potential is also being influenced by the extraordinary weather conditions the Country is facing.”
Charles Wells Pub Company has also confirmed that it intends to monitor the conditions when other supplier increases are announced during February and March. Although the final level of support will depend on the scale of price rises, it’s the company’s intention to absorb a large proportion of them until 1st June 2010.
“Whilst there’s so much uncertainty in the industry, we wanted to confirm our position regarding supplier price increases so that licensees know where they stand as early as possible” continued Wells. “This gives them a chance to plan ahead and discuss promotional opportunities with their Retail Development Managers, making sure that they’re ahead of the local competition in delivering a great pub experience.”
The company has also taken the opportunity to remind licensees to support the British Beer and Pub Association’s new campaign ‘I’m backing the pub’. It calls on the government to apply a cut in beer tax after the VAT goes back up and is an excellent way of working together to try and reduce one of the external barriers faced by the industry.
Charles Wells has 257 pubs operating on tenancy and lease trading agreements and completed the acquisition of 31 pubs in 2009. Trading results for the year to 30th September 2009 announced recently showed that EBITDA was level with last year on sales up 2.7%.
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www.charleswells.co.uk
For Immediate Release: 6th January 2010
For Further Information, please contact: Kate Hempsall
Tel: + 44 (0)1234 272625
kate.hempsall@charleswells.co.uk
