DRAM Scotland

Dakota up for Sale

dramscotland — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:18:33 +0000

Dakota Hotel at Eurocentral has been put up for sales. Property agents Jones Lang Lasalle have not set a price but are inviting offers.
The hotel was originally owned by Ken McCulloch and racing driver David Couthard but it is not owned by a syndicate of investors. The property, which also includes an empty two-storey office building, is let until 2031 to Dakota Eurocentral, part-owned by McCulloch.

Alarm scam back on

dramscotland — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:27:41 +0000

Glasgow licensees are being warned to be extra vigilant when setting their alarms after thieves targeted The Doublet in Park Road.
The alarm scam involves burglars visiting a pub earlier in the day and jamming the alarm sensors on the door. When staff go to set the alarm a the end of the night, it doesn’t set properly, and the burglars come back and are able to break in.
Says Doublet owner Alistair Don, “This happened a while ago, and we were caught out after thieves jammed our alarm sensors in our main door and came back and robbed the pub. The same thing happened to quite a few other licensed premises around the same time. Fortunately this weekend the person closing up recognised that the alarm hadn’t set properly and called the alarm company.”
This time round the thieves were foiled and Alistair is is urging other licensees to be vigilant. He comments, “Warn your staff about the alarm. If it doesn’t set, call your alarm company. Better to be safe than sorry.”

When did we get so boring?

dramscotland — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:25:42 +0000

Maybe we’ve always been boring. Or stable, reliable, traditional, steadfast, stalwart or any number of euphemisms that describe a people for whom change is frowned upon. Because, as a culture, we like things just the way they are.
Or do we? In the beginning, there was real ale. Then came kegs, lager and smoothflow. Next came Watney’s Red Barrel, CAMRA and micro-breweries. In a mere 20 years between 1960 and 1980, the UK beer scene went from throwing wooden spears to slinging AK-47s. And then it got boring again. Why?
Whilst maintaining our staunch stand as traditionalists, we in the UK also love new things — but only if they don’t ask us to stray too far from our comfort zone. We love fashionable clothes as long as we don’t have to lose weight to wear them. We love ethnic food as long as we can get chips on the side. And we love exploring any new place where there’s a hot shower and the barman can speak English (bad news for Scotland!).
Likewise, we’ve been more than willing to embrace any new fad that the beer world has to offer, that is, as long as none of it tastes too… well… different.
In the past ten years there has been a toe-curling relapse into familiar flavour territory in an industry that elsewhere is expanding quicker than Gordon Ramsay’s ego. While Holland, Belgium, Australia, France, Canada, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway and other countries look at old recipes with new eyes and explore untraditional ingredients and flavour combinations, we’ve had our mid-life crisis and now prefer to return to the comfy chair to live out our lives in familiar surroundings. True, a handful of Scottish brewing companies are trying to push the UK beer envelope – Brew Dog, Innis & Gunn (well, maybe it’s slightly less than a handful) — but they’re finding that feeding adventurous palates abroad is more fulfilling than trying to rouse the natives from their slumber.
I guess hadn’t realised how bad things had gotten until I went back to the States recently.
Students of American brewing know that British ales were the first to catch the attention of seminal microbreweries such as New Albion, Anchor and Grant’s. Top-fermenting and quick to brew, recipes for styles like ESB, Scotch Ale, IPA and Porter were adapted for use with local ingredients. Add a sprinkling of American curiosity for new flavours, and these centuries-old beer styles morphed into something new and wonderful.
Technology-addicted America was happy to adopt pressurised kegs as the standard dispense of draught beer in the 1960s, and real ale survives today only as a curiosity in brewpubs and adventurous specialty beer bars. As a result, America has joined the rest of the planet (except the UK) in packaging its best draught beer in kegs.
We walked into our first of many (and I mean many), randomly-selected bars, this one in Brooklyn, and were greeted by no less than 10 microbrewery beer taps – half of them local, most of them representing beer styles that that are unfamiliar in the UK, all of them ranging from 5% – 10% and not one of them was a nationally-advertised lager. Far from it – at this one bar alone, there was Apricot Beer, Imperial Pilsener, Honey Nut Brown Ale, Black Chocolate Stout and more.
In other words, not boring.
We went on to visit Philadelphia, Chicago and Indianapolis, and were met (particularly in Philadelphia) with more of the same. Miles and miles of taps offering well-brewed, interesting-tasting microbrews whose names contained only the occasional bad pun. Even the most-faceless sports bar offered a variety of draught microbrewed Altbier, Witbier, Weizenbock, Milk Stout or Triple IPA to choose from. And more striking was that restaurants – from the average grimy pizza joint to the sparkling Michelen-starred temple – had bigger beer lists than wine lists!
To put the icing on the cake, we noticed that that some UK breweries save their most-exciting beers for export: we didn’t see a single Behaven Best pump, but had no trouble finding their Scottish Stout (7% ) and Wee Heavy (6.5% ) in bottles. Are we being denied varied beer experiences here by breweries, or has our taste for a narrow range of flavours doomed them to go elsewhere to hawk their specialty beers?
Back in Blighty for our final night, we decided to hop on a train to Brighton as part of our goal of visiting the UK’s top sea-side resorts before we die. (Pathetic, isn’t it?) After a trip to the Pier for a cup of jellied eel and the obligatory gut-wrenching ride on a salt-pitted roller-coaster, we strolled back into town and stepped into a cosy-looking pub for a pint.
Fresh from our two-week orgy of beery delights, I wasn’t particularly tempted by the ranks of insipid real ales competing for the title of Blondest, Blandest and Weakest, nor the vast array of factory-brewed keg lagers distinguished from one another only by their advertising campaigns. Frustrated by the difference in draught options to those in Chicago just 24 hours earlier, I scanned the cooler for something festive. Ah, yes, there we are, tucked in the back corner.
I asked the barman for a couple of bottles of Duvel. Just then, a young couple strode up to the bar beside me. The bloke threw back his head and declared, mightily, “I’m gonna drink as much alcohol tonight as I can hold — lager and lime, please.” I turned to them and smiled weakly, as one does when faced with ambition even loftier than ticking Skegness off the bucket list. Spying my bottles of Duvel, the bloke asked me what they were. “This is a Belgian ale,” said I. “If you want to reach your goal tonight, maybe you want to try this – it’s 8.5%.”
His jaw dropped and his pupils dilated as he began looking at the bottles, then at me, then back at the bottles, like some dumbfounded cartoon character. “Have you ever had it before, mate?” he asked. “I’ve been drinking this stuff for years,” I answered. “It tastes fantastic, but the best thing about this beer is you get to spend less time in the loo and more time at the bar with your girl.”
The barman congratulated me on my choice. The publican unknowingly thanked me for making him twice the profit of the typical lager purchase. And I could have been mistaken, but I’m pretty sure the bloke’s partner shot a wink at the guy who wasn’t ordering a boring beer.
Jim Anderson is co-owner of The Anderson in Fortrose, and had trouble finding good beer in Blackpool, too.

Rangers adds £40m to on-trade sales

dramscotland — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:36:45 +0000

The value of Rangers to the Scottish on-trade is more than £40m, and that is a conservative estimate.
The figures seen by DRAM, show that fans spend around £19m around a home game while the remainder is spent when an away game is on.
Therefore Scottish pubs and hotels, particularly those in the West of Scotland, could suffer following the news last week that Rangers has gone into administration. Administrators Duffs & Phelps are currently looking into missing millions. If Rangers are not rescued Scotland’s pubs and hotels could take a massive hit as will the rest of the Scottish economy.
However the administrators are suggesting that the club will be saved, which will definitely be good news for the on-trade, but licensees are understandably nervous.
Said one, “The implications to the Scottish economy and the pub trade could be huge. Tennent’s don’t sponsor the old firm for the good of their health, they sponsor it because there is a commercial benefit.”
There are 960,000 Rangers fans in Scotland, making it the biggest fan base of any club. Research conducted by Sportswise a few years ago suggested more than 50% of fans going to a home match spent £10 or more in a pub pre-match while a further 70,000 fans watched the match from the pub. Hotels will suffer too. For every home game, according to the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, 1,000 hotel rooms are booked – that’s a minimum of 18,000 rooms per annum.
Said one licensee with multiple venues, “If Rangers cease to play it will have a massive negative effect on business. There will be knock on effects too. Will Sky invest in Scottish football if Rangers are not playing? Their fan base accounts for 49% of Scottish football supporters, the largest of any Scottish club.” He concluded, “An old firm game can mean up to £20K for one of our pubs, it would be very difficult to make up that deficit.”
Rangers went into administration after the club failed to pay HMRC a £9m tax bill.

Forth Wines buy J.A. Glass

dramscotland — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:14:33 +0000

Forth Wines has bought family-owned specialist drinks wholesale business J. A. Glass of Dysart for an undisclosed sum. The two companies will trade separately but J. A. Glass will move to Forth Wines’ Milnathort base.

J. A. Glass is a long established family business run by Duncan Glass and cousin Donald. It acts as a sole agent for many fine wines and spirits and stocks an extensive range of whiskies. It also sells to both the general public and the licensed trade.

George Thomson, managing director of Forth Wines, said, “There’s a great deal of synergy to be gained by bringing the two companies under one roof. Duncan will still be the force behind the J. A. Glass business and will continue to offer excellent service and advice to his customers. Working from the Milnathort site will enable him to take advantage of an extended product range and first class sales back up through the Forth telesales team.”

Duncan Glass said, “We are delighted to be working with Forth Wines. The move will enable us to focus on improving our customer reach and extend our product range to the benefit of our customers. Additionally the acquisition will enable my cousin Donald, my partner in the business, to enjoy a well earned retirement.”

Tennent Caledonian reveals 2.2% price increase

dramscotland — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:12:26 +0000

Tennent Caledonian has revealed a price increase of 2.2% effective from March for Tennent’s Lager and Magners Golden Draught. There will however be no increase on the wholesale list price of Caledonia Best. This equates to a 3.5p rise per pint, which is half, that of its nearest competitor.
John Gilligan, Sales Managing Director of Tennent Caledonian comments, “We recognise that these are tough times for the licensed trade and we will continue to support and invest in the trade as much as possible. We continue to focus on cost management within our business and our increase on Tennent Caledonian brands at 2.2% is significantly below the published rate of inflations and the lowest increase of the major brewers announced to date.”
There will also be an increase in the wholesale list price of AB Inbev brands by 5.6%.
Tennents say that the wholesale price increase will be the only one applied by the Tennent’s brand portfolion in 2012. However any duty increases will be passed on to customers.
Generally speaking most brewers have put the price of beer up by 7p a pint. Molson Coors raised the wholesale price by £19.99 which became effect on January 2. Carlsberg have added 7p to a pint, effective January 9, and Heineken’s rise comes into effect on February 6, and again equates to an average rise of 7p per pint.

On-trade outperforms off-trade when it comes to beer sales

dramscotland — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:48:36 +0000

The new UK ‘Beer Barometer’ shows pub beer sales slipped 3.4% in 2011, but off trade sales were down 3.7%
The figures, published by the British Beer & Pub Association, also revealed that the fall in beer sales has slowed. The fall in pub sales of 3.4% was the slowest rate of decline since 2004. This trend is also linked to a slowing in the rate of pub closures. It is the first time since 1996, when the European Championships were held in England, that the off-trade has put in a weaker performance than the on-trade.The BBPA believe it could be halted if the Government abandons damaging plans for yet-more, above-inflation rises in Beer Tax in the March Budget.
Brigid Simmonds, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, comments, “The decline in beer sales has slowed, but these figures show the sector cannot afford another round of inflation-busting, Beer Tax hikes in the Budget. This will delay any potential recovery in an iconic and economically vital British industry.”
She continues, “A change of course, giving brewers and pubs a chance to invest and expand their operations – could create over five thousand jobs in 2012 –which should be a great year for British beer and pubs with the Queen’s Jubilee, Euro 2012, the Olympics and Paralympics. These events could provide a real boost for the UK economy and boost employment – but this will only be possible if the Government reverses planned tax increases and damaging over-regulation.”
website
UK Quarterly Beer Barometer Q4 2011

Belhaven Black to launch

dramscotland — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:27:52 +0000

Belhaven Brewery are planning to launch Belhaven Black, a new 4.2 ABV stout this month (January 2012). The company aims, it says, to “ignite the UK’s stout market” which is totally dominated by Guinness.
This deluxe new stout has been crafted to provide a taste of something different for fans of deeper, dark ales.
Says George Howell, Belhaven Brewery Director, “Belhaven Black is a quality stout that provides publicans with the perfect opportunity to give customers exactly what they want – choice.”
He continues, “Until now there has been a lack of choice for stout drinkers, so we are fully expecting Belhaven Black’s arrival on the bar to create a bit of buzz.”
Belhaven Black will be available in keg from this month (January) and cask from June. The launch will be supported by POS including branded glassware, drip mats, bar runners and posters.

New appointments at Pernod Ricard

dramscotland — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:48:12 +0000

Patrick Venning has been appointed Marketing Director – Spirits at Pernod Ricard. Patrick, who has over 20 years’ marketing experience and seven years within Pernod Ricard UK working across the full portfolio of wine and spirits brands has been involved with the successful integration of brands following the Allied Domecq acquisition and turnaround performances on Jameson and Malibu. Patrick replaces Vlastimil Spelda who has taken a leadership marketing position within Pernod Ricard in Paris. Patrick joins the Pernod Ricard UK Executive Committee.

Phil Corfield has been appointed to the Pernod Ricard UK Executive Committee as Operations Director and Ian Peart has been promoted to Channel Director, On-Trade. Ian joined Pernod Ricard UK in 2006 and has been fundamental in driving the Pernod Ricard UK on-trade field sales team and strong growth of ABSOLUT in the on-trade following the acquisition of Vin & Sprit.

GLASGOW HAS REAL BUOYANCY IN THE RESTAURANT SECTOR

dramscotland — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:43:39 +0000

Alan Creevy, of CDLH Leisure & Hospitality Surveyors www.cdlh.co.uk recognised experts in the Hospitality property sector, looks back on 2011 with some surprising revelations on the popularity and growth of Glasgow’s buoyant restaurant sector.
Alan Creevy commented, “There is no doubt that the doom and gloom merchants were out in force in 2011. Realistically, there was very little growth in the economy as a whole and the leisure and hospitality sector did face significant challenges. However, we simply need to look at the new openings which took place within the Glasgow restaurant sector, which included Carluccio’s, Viva Brazil, Pesto as well as Costanzo Cacace’s Caprese Restaurant relocation from Buchanan Street to his new restaurant in Woodside Crescent. Gondola Restaurant group, which has brands including Pizza Express and Zizzi and sells over 30% of the chained Pizza market in the UK, is opening its new ASK Italian Restaurant adjacent to the Galleries Shopping centre. All of these new openings reflect the real confidence operators have in the city.
In addition to these new openings, we have seen a number of rebranded restaurants or re-openings including the Brooklyn Bar & Grill in the Merchant City and Veroni’s Italian Restaurant in West Regent Street and of course the iconic L’Ariosto complete refurbishment and refit as Barolo Restaurant on Mitchell Street.
At CDLH we believe these openings mark a testament to the popularity of Glasgow as a venue and the strength and resilience of the restaurant sector in general in the city. If the trend for the UK as a whole is reviewed, the expenditure on food in the UK eating out market, which is a £40 billion sector, dipped during 2009 as it did during the 1991 recession. However, in 2011, the trend returned to long term growth. There is no doubt that the austerity measures introduced by the current government will impact over 2012 and 2013.
However, as is often the case, national statistics and trends do not reflect localised trends. At CDLH, our experience of marketing Restaurants shows us that there is a very strong demand in the major Scottish cities not only from branded operators but also from a large number of very enthusiastic individual operators. It would appear, therefore, that, for 2012 and 2013, the Glasgow restaurant sector will continue to provide a robust return. The popularity of the city has certainly been assisted by landlords providing realistic rental terms which reflect the true trading potential of a particular property and location.
End – 421 Words
Prepared January 2012 for immediate release
Editor’s Note- Alan Creevy is a Chartered Surveyor on the RICS panel of Experts for Licensed Leisure & hotel property in Scotland.