Open again within a week? Over a hundred at meeting.

Update since the meeting – received today Monday 3^rd March

We are informed that the Bull & Lion will be open this Wednesday evening 5^th March from 5pm.

An experienced couple, Liam & Angela Parsons will be opening on Wednesday evening. They will initially be on a temporary contract, but are one of several applicants interested in a permanent tenancy being considered by Marstons. Their intention is to live at the pub.

We are told that one is an experienced Chef and, as soon as they have settled in, details of food availability will be publicised, hopefully by the weekend

Marstons have a number of applicants they are considering, but in view of the uncertainty of the last few months they will be undertaking the due diligence and review of the applicants business plans very carefully, and cannot commit to a time scale for the final decision.

The Bull and Lion was humming on Wednesday evening 26th February 2014 for an impromptu informal meeting arranged at very short notice by Marstons, who own our Bull and Lion.

Ben Robinson, Marstons’ Operations Manager, and Chris Reed, his Area Operations Manager, gave a friendly welcome to a standing-room-only crowd of Packington residents estimated at between 100 and 120.  Both  generously pulled pints and served drinks, at Marstons expense, prior to an informal and sometimes slightly chaotic meeting. This was due to the poor acoustics and that VERY large number crowded into both pub rooms, not in sight of each other.

Lots of questions were asked – mainly about why the pub had had such a poor record since 2007, and why we have now had 5 changes of direction inside a year; also villagers wanted to know what was going to happen for the future?

Change of team in November?

Several villagers were

particularly incensed that the friendly family-based team in place from August through to November, who were local, popular and apparently successfully reviving the pub, had been peremptorily removed.

They were replaced by two successive fairly characterless temporary outsiders with little personal capital in the village, and neither of whom had stayed.

The pub, our village social centre,  was now closed.

The brewery were trying to find someone to commit to the Bull and Lion for the long term. They believed they can find such a person.

Chris Reed has been in Marstons for 7 years, and responsible for our pub since last October.  With perhaps understandable reluctance to discuss individuals or their contracts, Chris accepted much of the responsibility for the present situation, saying:

“It is therefore MY challenge to get the right people in the pub. If we don’t and when pubs fail, you’re quite right, the brewery, the pub company, has a certain part in that failure, because actually we put them in in the first place. So..we have to get it right.. and that is MY Challenge, its been given to me by Ben and the senior people in the company, its to get the right person, we DO NOT WANT any more failures in the Bull and Lion.”

Drinks Prices and Tenancy Deals?

The price the pub had to charge for drinks was seen as an issue. This was one of the most expensive pubs for beer in the area. Beer had to be bought by the pub from the brewery for far more than they could buy it in a supermarket. They were selling “..a bottle of single-malt whisky for One Hundred and Twenty Quid” according to one villager.

Chris described the process he was undertaking for the long-term future of the pub, interviewing applicants who would have real commitment to the village. He made the point that landlords usually want to integrate fully into their surroundings: they do not have to currently live there to succeed or to be considered. In response to comments that the recent tenants had said they could not make the finances work, Chris made an impassioned statement on the situation:

“I am a poacher turned gamekeeper. I used to have my own pubs, I used to run them. I used to run tenancies, I used to run leased pubs, I knew the decision I was making when I took those pubs on, I knew the deal, and I know that you CAN make money from the tenancy. There are people around who are capable of doing it … I believe the model we have put forward and the offer we have put forward on the market at the moment gives the rights for an operator to make a good living, and also have an opportunity to grow the business to its full potential, and would make a significant income stream for them if they were to do that. That is what I firmly believe, and I don’t put out, with our estate managers, offers that I don’t think are viable, because there is no point – but we have to find the right operator who is going to take this business forward and make that model successful.”

It was pointed out that an excellent way to know your village is to live in it, and the upstairs of the Bull and Lion had accommodation, but it was at present unfit for living-in.  Many villagers thought that the brewery should invest in the pub, there was a need to spend money on refurbishment, to give the next landlord a better chance of success by living on the premises.

Time Scale – One Week?

Asked by a senior village resident: “What’s your timescale for the future now, as you see it now, are you talking of days, weeks, or what?”

Ben Robinson replied: “For the pub to be re-opened – we would be incredibly disappointed if we found ourselves with a closed pub this time next week”

Another Temporary leader?

Pressed about how the village did not want yet another temporary manager in the pub, Ben said: “If we find the person, whoever that may be.. and they can’t start till ..May, we will have to put a temporary operator in. We won’t just stick our thumb up in the street and drag the first person we find in, we’ll find someone who is the right temporary solution. That’s a commitment.”

What if you can’t find someone in 6 months? Ben and Chris agreed : “Our jobs are on the line.” In particular, Chris Reed said: “This IS my job. If I can’t find the right person for this job in six months, I really don’t deserve this job.”

Summary

Is the Bull and Lion up for sale? A very definite and emphatic NO came from Ben Robinson. The pub was not up for sale.

Ben has been 8 years in Marstons and involved with our pub for one year. Impressed by the unprecedentedly large turnout of villagers at short notice, and after a fair amount of exchange of views and discussion, Ben summarised the effervescent meeting so far:

“We clearly all want the same thing. Yes, we are at cross-purposes on numerous things, but we all want exactly the same thing, which is why everbody is here, right now, (we hear) ..loud and clear, what you want. So hopefully we can go away and find that.”

Communication

Packington Post pointed out to Ben and Chris that Marstons had failed to tell the village what was going on. This small village had excellent internal communications, with the  traditional word-of-mouth grapevine of villagers backed by noticeboards, an email alerting system, a village website with automatic links to social media, and a bi-monthly village magazine delivered to every village home. None of these had been contacted by Marstons;  there had been no press releases or attempts to post notices on village notice boards or electronic media. Just one day before this meeting, a small note had appeared in the pub window to advertise it.

Asked to state what his policy was on communication, Ben Robinson said

“In terms of communication, its clear we got it wrong and repeatedly, because we’re hearing that loud and clear again”. When pressed, Ben promised: “We WILL tell you what is going on“.

Thanks

Several villagers made themselves heard, thanking Ben and Chris for taking the trouble to come and tell the village what was happening, and despite the unfortunate situation for the village, we were on the whole very grateful for their good-humoured and hospitable attitude towards us all while taking heavy fire!

Thanks for the beer, Ben and Chris and Marstons. Fingers crossed that you can get it sorted..