Running a Pub With a Family Brewer

As Family Brewers, we look to our direct and strong local connections with our own pubs to provide support to our brewing heritage. The Brewery Tie binds the two parts of our business interests together.

As part of the tie agreement, Family Brewers invest tens of millions of £s each year on buying, refurbishing, maintaining and insuring our tenanted pubs meaning that our tenants have the opportunity to run their own successful and well invested pubs that they otherwise would not be able to fund.

We also provide a full range of business services and advice free of charge to our tenants to help them comply with legislation and tackle business challenges, ensuring they are able to maximise their own financial success. The structure of the brewery tenancy agreement means that both parties share in success and everyone is aligned in wanting the pub to do well.

This model is tried and tested and continues to operate well in today's world. This is proven by many of our tenants running very successful pubs and choosing to take a second, third or even fourth pub with us, creating their own small pub estates within our estates.

Running a pub with us with a Brewery Tie serves a number of purposes and is in the best of interests of:

Tenants - with the security of the Brewery Tie, Family Brewers:

Provide capital and investment to buy, insure and maintain pub properties operated by their tenants.
Provide tenants with a chance to set up their own businesses at a low-cost entry, creating new employment opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Share financial impact with tenants when drink sales increase or decrease thus lowering the tenant’s operational risk.
Provide extensive support services to tenants which they would not receive as a freehold operator. This is particularly helpful during difficult economic times in the form of financial and business advice, continued investment, marketing and promotions, cellar and beer quality management and digital and marketing training.
Take a long-term view of investing and supporting our tenants over long business cycles.

Pub-goers – The Brewery Tie benefits the pub-goer by enabling Family Brewers to provide:

A wider choice of locally brewed beer brands, particularly specialist cask beers than would be available if Family Brewers ceased to exist.
Well invested pub premises which compete healthily with other on-trade outlets in their local markets.
A wide range of other products for our tenants using established buying relationships, including those of major European brewers.
The enjoyment of experiencing the rich heritage of our business.

Local communities & Economies – The Brewery Tie benefits geographically diverse local communities and their economies by:

Guaranteeing jobs at the brewery and in the pubs we own and with suppliers to our businesses.
Ensuring we as Family Brewers continue to be major employers in mainly fairly, small towns.
Taking a long-term view of viability. Each pub provides employment, often in small communities. In rural areas many pubs are given a lifeline to remain open because we take a long-term view about the success of a pub and will support tenants as they grow their businesses.
Strongly maintaining and preserving many of the most historic pubs in the country which provide significant tourism opportunities. Many of us also have visitor centres and brewery museums.

During the Covid pandemic

The independent Licensee Index Report 2020 surveyed a range of tenants (including those from Family Brewers) during the trials and tribulations of Covid. The Family Brewers scored 8.4 verses a wider trade average of 7.8 for their Covid support, on a scale to 1 to 10 for 'likelihood to recommend to others'. Tenants of Family Brewers scored us at 8.5 verses a score of 7.2 by tenants generally. Even at this stressful time for all parties, Family Brewers had 61% of their surveyed tenants 'passionately positive' about their relationship with us verses a wider average of 39%.

During Covid, Family Brewers waived more than 88% of all rent for the tenants in our pubs to give the worst affected of these small, local businesses the best chance of survival, and to take away the added financial stress for our loyal licensees.

In many cases, our community pubs are the last services left in a small village or town and our continued investment and support for our tenants ensures they survive.