Comments from a “Mole in a Pub Co Hole”

We are not anti Pub Co’s just the ones that are abusing naive and honest people, giving them inadequate training to meet the criteria of a competent operator and the extreme, unsustainable rents and trading conditions, which good operators are struggling to meet and a vast number are failing fast. Buying a pub used to be [...]

First Experiences of a Very Naive Pub Owner Part 5

One of my regular locals owned a Guest House a mile up the valley from the Pub. He had semi retired from Leicester, moving down to Exmoor with a fairly recent Wife. She seemed determined to make her mark in the Guest House business whilst her Husband Paul was adopting a more “Laid back approach.” He [...]

First Experiences of a Very Naive Pub Owner Part 4

The alterations were duly completed, with nicotine stained beams being erected everywhere and plaster work painted nicotine white to give that aged look. I actually found a beam with an old date carved into it which I put in a secondary position to make it look genuine rather than putting it in obvious view. A [...]

First Experiences of a Very Naive Pub Owner Part 3

We had been warned about Dicks’ habit of drinking after hours and we duly fell by the wayside and joined our predecessors in long nights. Dick would bring an assortment of Visitors, Farmers, Horse Dealers, all sorts of people in late at night drinking vast amounts of Manns Brown and Haig Whiskey and milk. After [...]

First Experiences of a Very Naive Pub Owner Part 2

Easter came and went, this was an ordeal by fire, the World and his Wife descended on us, we had no concept of what it would be like. If anyone suggests taking over a business before a Bank Holiday to enjoy the benefits, don’t ever do it, it is the quickest way to lose customers [...]

First Experiences of a Very Naive Pub Owner Part 1

One of my major mistakes in life was to buy a West Country Pub, trying to explain to my wife why we were about to give up our beautiful house and the boredom of a nine to five job, to live beside a raging torrent of a river on Exmoor, in initially a very dirty [...]