Shepherd Neame

Reading the article - I think the summary is better quoted with "the vertically integrated approach adopted by Shepherd Neame, whereby it is both a brewer and an operator of managed and tenanted pubs, was not working. " His problem with the advertising was that they spent too much on them.

The Neame pubs don't seem to be profitable - so even mothballing them would make financial sense - selling them on would mke even more sense. After all, Scottish and Newcastle has come to that conclusion by concentrating on brewing, other companies (like M&B) have the exact opposite approach.

In message , Andy Bolstridge writes

Other brewers run vertically integrated businesses successfully so its not an intrinsically bad business model. I'd suggest poor management is the real cause of their problems, changing the managers seems a more plausible reaction than letting them screw the business over even more.

Hopefully this will reduce the constant flood of whining from Stuart Neame, or at least stop it being reported uncritically. Maybe without him antagonising government at every opportunity we can make progress on equalising duty with Europe.

Well said. It wouldn't be so bad if he had maintained the same level of volume when we had a Tory government, but the sudden increase in volume post

The good news is that at Friday's AGM the board said that under no circumstances would he be succeeding Bobby Neame when he retires in 2 years. And Stuart Neame has resigned as a director - Good news indeed.

I believe that the board has also agreed to continue with the major advertising campaign for Spitfire contrary to Stuart's objections. Again, good news.

Alan Holt

Mmm. I wonder. Some of my favourite beers (Roosters, Durham, etc. ) never seem to need advertising at all, so I'm fairly convinced that a really excellent product will sell itself. Unlike Pubco £$%&^ which needs all the advertising it can get. As far as Shepherd Neame goes, I seem to remember that many of their pubs have been badly hit by the trade in cheap beer from the continent, and the difference in duty is of course obscene. Still, I remember ted heath telling us that if we went into Europe (in

Breweries on a different scale to Sheps. But, Holts and Harveys have certainly survived on beer quality alone and with aggressive polices towards not giving discounts.

Ah. These points about duty are the ones that have been shouted from the rooftops by Stuart Neame since the Tories lost power. He fails to shout about the large volumes of Sheps beer sold around Calais and the fact that it doesn't cost much to move it from Faversham to Dover. Personally I find it a lot easier to find bootleg beer (including sheps) on sale in my homeland of Manchester than in the heart of rural Kent, where I live.

With regard to pubs, they did buy a large number of pubs from the Fremlins estate when the beer orders began to bite and they were a bit of a mixed bag to say the least.

And likewise surely a brewer would not make comment that had any bias toward political purpose....

A recent except from Hansard, on a different subject, shows the view that the Government has of Mr Neame,

It's not what you say, it's how it's heard.

Rant over.

Alan Holt

/SNIP/

I read through this. (It's an extract from the Licensing bill, Lords passage BTW) Basically it's a complaint from Dr. Howells about Stuart Neame and Tim Martin re. their 'Kill the bill' campaign. Mr. Moss (Northêst Cambridgeshire) puts the point that the justification for switching licensing from licensing justices to local authorities was the argument in the white paper, and that from the government, was that a saving in the order of 1.9 B GBP (not a misprint, and presumably for licensees) would be achieved via that switch. Dr. Howells stands by that claim, and attempts to rubbish Stuart Neame, even though he admits that he does not know for definite that his is the chain opposing such a move. The good Dr. then proceeds to spout more rubbish, such as licensing by magistrates requires a hearing in virtually all cases! Put simply: Stuart Neame believes that licensing should be done by licensing justices as that method will be cheaper than having it done by local authorities. Is he right? Well as an ex-licensee I can state that I would rather trust the present system of licensing to be both independent and cheaper than having it done by local authorities. In addition, the local authorities have already stated that a minimum of

A quote by Peter Mandelson?:-)

"> > same breath, the only time we have had beermats in JDW is when a

Well put. Very erudite.

Ruff

Ruff Sailor3/11/03 8:45 AM

(snipped)

And very accurate too.

CR

Did he say "soon" ? ;-) It's only been thirty years.

All very well opposing Stuart Neame but the board wants to put in the man who boasts of making Boddington's a major national brand (bland?), making Stella the biggest selling premium lager and generally most of the excesses of Whitbread over the past few years. What chance for Sheps with this man in charge - I give it 5 years!

Peter