29-494: Varsity was a student-focused pub chain operating in the United Kingdom. The name originates from annual university sports competitions. It entered administration in 2013. Coventry is the only remaining pub bearing the name Varsity which is now operated by Stonegate Pub Company. The chain began in the mid-1990s. Its main competitor was Scream Pubs . Varsity was more sports-orientated than It's A Scream. Varsity Wolverhampton –
58-566: A loyalty card scheme known as The Yellow Card. It was available to students annually for £1 (originally free) and entitled them to discounts on selected food and drink. In November 2006, selected Scream Pubs had been chosen to run a trial wherein they did not sell Yellow Cards. With the introduction of the new Scottish Licensing Laws on 1 September 2009, Yellow Cards purchased in Scream pubs in Scotland would not be valid until 72 hours after purchase. In
87-541: A Scream . The pubs were all within relatively short walking distance of a university. Bass's retail arm became Mitchells & Butlers in April 2003. Scream was disposed of by Mitchells and Butlers on 20 August 2010, along with around 300 other Mitchells and Butlers pubs for £373m to Stonegate (owned by TDR Capital ). Scream pubs were aimed at the student market, and mostly found near to universities. They claimed to be 'the number one choice of students'. Its chief competitor
116-446: A ban on pubcos selling pub premises with restrictive covenants that prevent them being used as pubs in the future. Ted Tuppen explained the need for covenants to the committee by saying there are too many pubs in some areas and Enterprise used restrictive covenants "because, genuinely, we think these are pubs that have lived their life". However, he admitted that 70% of Enterprise sales have such covenants in place. The select committee
145-650: A change to multiple visits by customers during the day. Enterprise Inns Ei Group plc , formerly known as Enterprise Inns plc , was the largest pub company in the UK, with around 4,000 properties, predominantly run as leased and tenanted pubs. Ei Group plc was headquartered in Solihull , West Midlands . It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Stonegate Pub Company in March 2020. The company
174-414: Is not as widespread as the beer tie. On 12 May 2009, The Guardian newspaper reported how "Enterprise Inns counts cost of bad pub landlords": the recession had forced the company to take action against more than 100 "poor quality and underperforming licensees" since last autumn. It is spending £1.4m a month on financial assistance to help those in distress, on top of the £700,000 a month cost of freezing
203-608: Is now a Hydes pub. 'Robinskis' in Fallowfield was taken over by Stonegate in late 2010. Due to various disputes within the company regarding profits and poor management remained for sale from its purchase by Stonegate until 6 May 2011, when the pub was finally sold to an independent owner, and was reopened as Nayaab Indian Restaurant. Scream had 67 pubs under its name at the time of Sale. Stonegate bought 62 of these pubs. The other five stayed under Michells and Butlers until they were sold on to other buyers. Since Stonegate have taken over,
232-579: The V Card , one of the first loyalty cards, which allowed a cheaper price for some drinks, and allows better offers on some of the food deals. Scream Pubs Scream (formerly known as It's A Scream ) was a student-oriented pub chain in the United Kingdom owned by the Stonegate Pub Company . The chain began in October 1995. The pub chain was set up by brewers Bass , who called it, It's
261-647: The 22 pubs of the Varsity chain. In June 2005, the Barracuda Group was sold for £262 million to Charterhouse Capital Partners . In August 2006 there were 36 Varsity bars. In October 2012, Barracuda was renamed The Bramwell Pub Company. In October 2013, The Bramwell Pub Company went into administration. The Stonegate Pub Company bought 78 of the company's pubs including the Varsities in Lincoln and Coventry. It operated
290-505: The Summer of 2003, Scream introduced the "Yellow Card For Life" – costing £5, with the promise that it will never expire. There were 50 Scream pubs spread around the UK when Stonegate took over the chain, with the vast majority being in towns and cities with a significant student population. One of the first scream bars to close was "The India Arms" in Portsmouth during the early 2000s, the pub
319-744: The Unique Pub Company and it formed part of the FTSE100 Index at that time. However, the decline in the UK pub trade led to its removal from the FTSE100 in 2008. Due to its high level of debt the company stopped paying dividends to shareholders in 2009. Ted Tuppen stood down as Chief executive in February 2014 and Enterprise Inns rebranded to Ei Group in February 2017. In July 2019 Stonegate Pub Company announced its intention to acquire Ei Group for £1.27 billion. That same month and year, Stonegate pursued
SECTION 10
#1732847531657348-656: The acquisition of Ei Group in a £3 billion deal which will "add almost 4,000 new pubs to Stonegate Pub Company’s 765 existing locations". The pubs are operated by tenants, which means that the company collects rent from individuals who operate and often live in the pubs. They also operate (in most, but not all cases) what is known as a beer tie . This means that tenants renting public houses from them are under contract to buy beer, ciders, alcopops and other alcoholic drinks from Enterprise Inns only. Under some leases tenants are required to also purchase other products, such as soft drinks, wines and spirits from Enterprise, although this
377-503: The arrangements for assessing rents remain opaque. Rental assessment should be the basis for negotiation, but incumbent lessees often risk the loss of their home as well as their business if they cannot reach agreement, the report says." The Eye says the committee found that pubco tenants are initially attracted to run pubs by low entry costs, but soon find that making a decent living is very difficult. Tenants' leases oblige them to buy alcoholic drinks from nominated suppliers at up to twice
406-450: The committee's findings had "at last shed light on an industry in freefall, with 40 pubs closing [in the UK] every week. Pubcos are essentially greedy property companies with a cuddly name – and they own nearly half the country's pub freeholds." The Committee commissioned its own independent survey as part of the inquiry, to determine whether the negative evidence it initially received from lessees
435-609: The first varsity bar in the chain – shut its doors in June 2012 after The University of Wolverhampton made a successful bid to the struggling Barracuda Group to purchase the building. It ceased trading in 2013. Varsity was founded by Wolverhampton & Dudley . The Barracuda Group was formed in July 2000 by PPM Ventures, a private equity company that became Silverfleet Capital . In September 2001 Barracuda Group bought fifty pubs from Wolverhampton & Dudley for £37.25 million, which included
464-498: The following 14 pubs have been sold by Stonegate: Starting with the Southfield, Stonegate began converting existing Scream sites to a new 'Common Room' brand, rather than branding each site as a uniform segment, instead brands each site individually. The sites focus more on casual dining and an emerging interest in craft beer. Typically sites having converted to the new brand saw an increase in sales of roughly 60%, with success based on
493-451: The lessees who had turnover of more than £500,000 pa earned less than £15,000 – a 3 per cent rate of return. The lessees may share the risks with their pubco but they do not appear to share the benefits. The report therefore concludes that problems which were identified by the Trade and Industry Committee four years ago remain. An imbalance of bargaining power between lessees and pubcos persists and
522-474: The open-market price. If a struggling tenant leaves, another tenant can be found to replace them. In the years of booming property prices this practice was successful, but is much less so now, as evidenced by the number of pub closures. The Guardian reported that MPs found an imbalance of power that can amount to "downright bullying" between the big pubcos, such as Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns , and their tenants. In 2008, one tenant who felt forced to close
551-467: The price of five lager and ale brands. Chief executive Ted Tuppen told The Guardian : "If people are genuinely struggling and will work with us, we are providing an awful lot of help". The cost of these programmes was however contributing to a slump in profits. On 13 May 2009, the House of Commons published a report regarding a monopolies inquiry into pub groups. The report "raises a series of questions about
580-552: The problems of the pub industry come from the tied pub model. It is clear there are many pressures on any retail business ... Nonetheless, our inquiry found alarming evidence indicating there may be serious problems caused by the dominance of the large pub companies.'" According to an article in Private Eye , the select committee asked 1,000 publicans for their opinions regarding their experiences working with Britain's largest pubcos, which includes Enterprise Inns. The Eye states that
609-614: The pub company ( pubco ) tied pub business model and calls on the Government to act urgently, in particular, to refer the matter to the Competition Commission . It challenges the pubcos which operate a tie to prove its benefits by giving lessees the choice between a tied or free of tie lease." The report also raises issues regarding the actual conduct of pubcos in dealing with struggling tenants. Committee chairman Peter Luff , MP says: "The report explicitly acknowledges that 'not all
SECTION 20
#1732847531657638-518: The pub he ran with his wife said: "We told Enterprise [Inns] we were struggling and needed some help; they didn't come forward with any. If we were late paying bills we would get threatening phone calls. They could have put a hold on the rent or given us a discount until we managed to get business back up. If we didn't pay bills on time they wouldn't deliver the beer and when they did deliver it they would charge us for carriage. Instead of helping us they were making it worse." The MPs are said to also want
667-519: Was Varsity , owned at the time by the Barracuda Group , although Varsity had a more mainstream market – often concentrating on football matches on Sky Sports and located closer to town centres. Varsity became part of Stonegate in 2013. The original name came from the 1893 painting The Scream , by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch , which is a popular poster image with many students. The painting
696-631: Was formerly shown on some pub signs of the former It's A Scream chain. The pubs each had individual items, for example a giant monkey mural (Horn in Hand), a talking moose's head (White Harte, Bristol), an aardvark costume (The Aardvark, Coventry) or a large painting of a Phoenix (The Phoenix, Coventry) and their own sign relating to their name. Some went further, such as the Dry Dock in Leeds and Leicester which were built inside an old grounded ship. Scream pubs had
725-474: Was founded by Ted Tuppen , initially with 300 pubs from Bass , as Enterprise Inns in 1991. The company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1995. The group made a series of acquisitions including 1,864 former Laurel Pub Company pubs from Whitbread in 2002 and 4,054 pubs with the acquisition of the Unique Pub Company in 2004. Enterprise Inns had over 9,000 pubs on completion of the acquisition of
754-409: Was not generally impressed by the pubcos' senior executives, rebuking them for having given "partial" and even "false" evidence to the committee. The committee recommended that "the tying of beers, other drinks and ancillary products should be severely limited to ensure that competition in the retail market is restored." The Eye notes that select committee chairman Peter Luff "may be looking to right
783-552: Was short lived, as the establishment reverted to the original name of The Registry in March 2011. However, It closed once again on 1 June 2014 and was converted into student halls of residence, which opened in September 2015. 'The Queen of Hearts' and 'The Cheshire Cat' in Fallowfield, Manchester, were never sold by Mitchells and Butlers in late 2010. They still operated as Scream Pub, but all branding had to be removed. As of 15 April 2011, The pub has been sold to Hydes Pub Company , and
812-460: Was sold to Enterprise Inns where it currently trades as "The Italian Bar and Grill". Another scream bar in Portsmouth, The Registry closed at the end of March 2010. It was renamed The Kraken Wakes as part of an ongoing partnership between independent pub operator Fiveeightzero and the owner, Mitchells & Butlers . It opened at the end of April 2010 following a refurbishment. The new name
841-494: Was typical of feelings in the industry. "The survey results, printed with the Committee's evidence, underpinned the Committee's findings. 64 per cent of lessees did not think their pubco added any value and while a fifth had had a dispute with their pubco, few (18 per cent) were satisfied with the outcome. The Committee was astonished to learn that 67 per cent of the lessees surveyed earned less than £15,000 pa and over 50 per cent of
#656343