First date set for the monthly boycott of draught beer in ‘tied’ pubs
It is a little known fact outside of the trade that those pubs tied to chains and breweries can pay up to 66% more for a keg of beer than those who are independent or free of ties, and it is these pubs who have been called upon to join a boycott of draught beers on the first Monday of the month.
Brian Mannion is the man calling for the boycott, and he was in attendance yesterday at a pub rally in Westminster called ‘Fair Deal for Your Local’ and he has announced the first boycott will take place on Monday the 1st July.
This news comes in the wake of a new survey from CAMRA, Campaign for Real Ale, which reveals that most of the publicans who are tied in to buy their beer from certain companies are now earning less than the UK minimum wage as 60% are now making less that £10,000 per annum.
In a video interview, Brian Mannion, licensee at The Black Lion Kilburn, says: “We’ve been forced into this action because Enterprise talk about a ‘business relationship’ but what we’ve got is a dictatorship. We want them to reflect on the following bizarre situation. Their dray truck will make a delivery to the ‘free of tie’ pub across the road and then drop off here and we’re paying 66% more on some of the same products.”
“I’m sure there are lot of pubs in a similar situation. There’s a lot of disgruntled publicans out there and if we took a day of action one day in the month where all tied pubs stop buying lager they would force the pub companies to rethink their approach – it would be a purpose of action and we could move the situation forward.”
The Black Lion is the first pub in Britain to remove all its beer taps and cancel all orders of beer until its supplier Enterprise Inns lowers its prices. After 800 years it no longer serves beer in pints at the pub. Read The Telegraph story here
The Black Lion is also a member of the Fair Deal for your Local campaign, a coalition effort of 10 leading industry organisations. Coordinated by Greg Mulholland MP it calls for reform of the tied model of large pub companies.
