Tonight:
5°c
Ted Tuppen is “evil”. Apparently he is also a destroyer of dreams and sometimes families, a wrecker of entrepreneurial endeavour, a man not to be trusted.
I know this from the websites of the pub trade press and various internet message boards where the disgruntled gather to vent their spleen.
As chief executive of Enterprise Inns, Tuppen is sometimes described as Britain's most powerful publican but he doesn't directly manage the pubs.
Individual landlords buy leases from the company and agree to purchase beer and pay rent, a “tied” model for running bars that has attracted the interests of MPs and the Competition Commission, though neither has concluded that it is wholly unfair.
For years this arrangement worked just fine and the pub companies loaded up on debt that was supported by a happily rising share price.
For the last two years the squeeze has been on and the shares have been trashed.
Some say the business model of pubcos, a model dependent on debt at a time it is out of fashion, is finished.
The landlords, a well-organised bunch of them anyway, complain that Enterprise and arch-rival Punch Taverns are bleeding them dry with inflated rents, high beer prices and broken promises.
The abuse is at times hysterical. At worst, experienced landlords argue that Tuppen and co lure naive operators who lose their life savings in a trade they don't understand. When they fail another mug is signed up…
Tuppen himself tries to keep off the message boards, but sometimes can't resist the temptation to peek and wonder at the hatred of people who have never met him.
One excitable London landlord appears to believe that some years ago Tuppen set fire to the pub he runs after a lengthy legal dispute between the pair that has never quite been resolved.
Relaxing over a glass of white wine at The Commander, a classy Enterprise pub near Notting Hill, Tuppen seems an unlikely arsonist.
The warring landlords are good at generating noise and sometimes they even have a point, he concedes. Occasionally, Enterprise has let its business partners down but with an estate of 7000 pubs that's just bound to happen every now and again.
As for the business model, he admits Enterprise is unlikely to regain the stature that saw it a member of the FTSE, but neither is it ruined. And the idea that contracts should be ripped up and pubs sold at reduced prices to landlords who want to wriggle free of legal obligations seems downright offensive. “They weren't complaining in the good years,” he notes.
Lately, smaller operators have been far outshining the large players but Tuppen insists there are benefits to scale.
For a start, micro brewers who might otherwise have gone under can stay in business with just one good Enterprise order.
He cites Doom Bar, a bitter made by Cornwall brewer Sharp's, as one that has boomed thanks to his company's patronage.
Since Enterprise was set up in 1989 the number of brewers listed in the Camra handbook has increased from 276 in 1989 to 668, which suggests the company isn't guilty as charged of crushing consumer choice.
If it's hard to make a profit from selling beer, the reason is tax, not pubcos, says Tuppen, mindful that ever-greater levels of regulation have been imposed on all sections of the industry.
Would the world be a better place if every contract signed between adults were overseen by an all-powerful watchdog, keen to protect people from their own folly? The answer is, in some cases, yes.
The pub trade is probably not one of those areas and some of the fuming landlords may have to accept that they are in the wrong game.
As for Tuppen, he's staying put. “I'll be around. I'm not giving up,” he says.
Westminster car-clamping finds a flaw in the oinkment
In February, Westminster council unveiled which firm it had chosen to run a £50 million, four-year parking contract (clamping and ticketing drivers, basically).
Competition to land the tender was fierce and the winner, Mouchel, had reason to be pleased. The press release announcing the news has since been pulled from the council website — why, I asked?
Westminster tells me it has “suspended the procurement process” for its on-street parking enforcement “following the discovery of a flaw in the contract document”. What this means isn't entirely clear but the whole bidding process now has to be repeated at considerable cost to council taxpayers. NSL, which held the previous contract, is also presumably being paid extra to continue its work.
Westminster's parking department is no stranger to controversy. There are, so far as we know, two inquiries into contracts awarded by the department. One of them sees allegations of fraud levelled at two Westminster officials — police are investigating.
Neil Herron of ParkingAppeals.co.uk, a one-stop shop for motorist complaints about grasping councils, reckons there is something thoroughly fishy about how Westminster conducts its parking affairs. There may be more news to emerge here…
Gordon puts conspiracy theorists into overdrive
Conspiracy theory of the week, far Right-wing nutters' department:
Gordon Brown has long been lined up to become the next top dog at the International Monetary Fund — such speculation has been fended off by government officials since at least 2005 when he was still Chancellor.
The IMF has been critical of the amount of debt Britain is carrying but has so far resisted truly sticking the boot in because Brown remains tight with all the people who matter at the financial watchdog.
At the election there is a hung parliament but the Conservatives are clearly the biggest party and Brown decamps to Washington in a huff.
Then, after a reasonable period of grace, the IMF suddenly decides that Britain's debt levels are unmanageable, especially given the incoherent policies being followed by the new government.
Britain loses its triple-A rating and is plunged into crisis.
In a state of panic, the Tories call another election in an attempt to increase their grip on power so they can push through tougher, debt-reduction policies.
They lose, and Labour are back in, with Brown pulling all the important strings from his new position.
Even Gordon wouldn't be that tribalist, you say. It's just a theory.
Reader views (1)
Ted Tuppen is indeed disliked by many of his tenants, why? because his pubco model is immoral, it is unfair, and it is not transparent. This man and his company should be investigated by the Competition Commission.
- Molly Phelan, london, 24/03/2010 09:20
Report abuse
