Pushing the Envelope

Sad But True Department: Some 1,000 pubs have closed around the country over the last three years. Some closures surprised no one – such pubs were closures waiting to happen – anachronisms, if you ask me. They should never have been in the first place.
For these pubs, high footfall days were rarer than a steak sandwich on the Rainbow Warrior.
But in a slimmer, more efficiency-conscious pub-world, rural pubs continue to decline as does the rural ‘community life’ that they once supported – no ‘Hold-The-Front-Page’ news there either, I suppose…
But I was recently asked to what extent do the remaining rural pubs help rekindle ‘community life’ in Ireland and in doing so, rekindle their footfall?
It’s an interesting question to mull over in the night’s darkness and I discovered that successful pubs take a widely different approach by way of an answer.
All have one thing in common. They’re pushing the envelope in terms of broadening their appeal.
You see it in the signs as you walk into such pubs.
They make their offering clear via signs to those passing by: ‘We’re open from breakfast though brunch, lunch and afternoon tea to dinner’.
Some actually – gasp! – welcome children and with the provision of a family atmosphere in mind, proudly announce that Sunday lunch will be served throughout the afternoon. Well, who’d have thought it? Lunch in a pub…….

 

Irish pub food – stand up & take a bow

Ruminating over the Christmas period about sunnier times in 2008, I experienced a certain warm glow when remembering my summer hols which were somewhat soggy as I topped them off with a week on the Shannon, often cruising through the Irish version of Cyclone Gustav. At the time though, my thoughts were not on the weather but rather on the fortnight we’d spent immediatly before the Shannon trip – in France. Now I like my grub as much as the next trencherman but it makes me very happy to be able to relate that these days, French cuisine couldn’t hold a candle to our own. No matter where we went in France – and we traversed the country quite thoroughly by car – the food was practically an identikit version or variation of Steak Frites, Crepe Frites, Spaghetti and other pasta dishes etc, all cooked with a nonchalant air which showed up in the lacklustre flavours and couldn’t-care-less attitude to tourists. This was finally brought home to me by the really really good food and service we experienced in pubs and restaurants along the shores of the Shannon.

Here lies a good example of Irish pubs that are firmly not part of a major conurbation making a go of it in ‘the wilds’. The food and the beverages were excellent as was the atmosphere. After all, that’s what we’d come for and I’d reckon we must have been representative of millions of other ‘tourists’ all looking for the same thing from our hostelries, unmindful of the Irish weather. I was particularly impressed by the food and service in the excellent Larkins in Garrykennedy and decided to firmly moor ourselves to one of their tables in this scrupulously clean establishment on a number of occasions during our week afloat. We weren’t disappointed. The fare was fabulous. I don’t even like Fish Chowder but was encouraged to try a spoonful by my better half. I ordered it for myself the next time we were in. Atlantic mussels, roast duckling and as much steak as you could comfortably spancel in a weekend – all immaculately cooked and presented before the pub settled into a traditional music session for the evening. Maura and Cormac Boyle took over the place two years ago and a great fist they’ve made of it too. The coup de grace came when – uncharacteristically – someone forgot the order of French Fries which, on being reminded, arrived at the end of the meal. Still nobody minded; we’d eaten our fill and the Guinness was good. When the bill arrived, Maura insisted that there would be no charge for an order that didn’t arrive on time. So free chips and a fulsome feeling as we waddled back to the boat that night, having enjoyed Irish hospitality at its finest. If our experience is replicated by other tourists visiting this country there could be no finer place to eat than in Irish pubs such as Larkins. We should be proud. Footnote: Alas our enjoyable evening in Larkins wasn’t to last the night. We returned to our craft and had to let out one sick dog from the boat’s cabin which Hurricane O’Gustav had rocked and rolled mercilessly for the evening while we were in the pub, leaving us with doggie vomit and other attractive traits of the family pet in a number of unsuspecting places……

Source: Drinks Industry Ireland Magazine

 

‘Dublin is not Ireland’ – thank God!

Something has been happening in Dublin over the last few years. And it’s not nice. Dublin’s service industry has become gruff in nature and most importantly, that’s being voiced abroad. Our capital city would want to take the squashed laurels from under its posterior for it has been resting on them for too long in the area of customer-friendly service.
Rural pundits have often claimed quite rightly that ‘Dublin is not Ireland’ and  I’ve the chance to take this to heart as I absconded from the office to take a week’s holiday on the waters of the Shannon.
And the contrast between my experiences of late in Dublin and those outside the capital could not be more stark.  It’s something that the service industries in Dublin both retail and restaurant are going to have to look into.
One horror story in particular is brought to my attention by the organisers of an international conference in Dublin this summer.

 

InBev values A-B at €30bn

If InBev’s €30 billion ($46bn) merger approach to Anheuser-Busch is successful,  it would create a global number one in beer supply with Budweiser as the flagship brand backed up by such notable brand giants as Stella Artois and Beck’s.
All this would grab a quarter of the world  beer market through sales of some 500 brands. InBev, currently the world’s biggest brewer, has formally proposed the merger with A-B.
However it’s no secret that the Stars & Stripes are being brought out to fend off this unwelcome attention with many American blue collar workers expressing negative feelings at the thought of an all-American brewer being swallowed up by a multinational from Europe.
But InBev is not going to just go away. To this many-times-itself-consolidated company, the savings are attractive and Mergers & Acquisitions are about the only ways forward.
InBev’s Chief Executive Carlos Brito has stated, “We have the highest respect for Anheuser-Busch, its employees and its leadership who have built the leading brewer in the US and grown the iconic Budweiser brand”.
He added, “We view this combination as a natural next step for both companies who already enjoy successful partnerships in the US, Canada and South Korea”.
While A-B’s board of directors are to evaluate this  “unsolicited proposal” from Inbev, it’s frothy potential for making a fortune in Eastern Europe and Asia (in contrast to the flat markets nearer home in Central and Western Europe and the US) will have to be weighed in.
Apart from that, higher raw materials costs will need to be offset by consolidations just like this one, producing just such economies of scale in supplying these emerging markets.
And the rationalisation which would inevitably follow this deal could produce savings estimated at over €50 million which would go a considerable way towards meeting the increased cost of raw materials – this year.

 

Are Guinness about to leave Dublin?

We first reported on this issue 12 months ago and as their review of Irish operations nears an end, speculation is rife that at least a portion of the Dublin site will be sold off for property development. Should nostalgia and sentimentality be part of their decision or is the balance sheet more important?

 

Havana Club’s Master Classes – a taste of Cuba(nito)

The last time I was in Havana (he said, casually, as if I popped out there only all the time), I dropped into the (real and original) La Floridita and met its Head Barman Danel Gonzalez Hernandez. There followed a most enjoyable afternoon in the pleasant company of Mojitos, Margeuritas and Cubanitos.
Ever since then – and ‘though I’ve tried – I’ve never been able to make a Cubanito in anything approaching the light of Danel’s Cubanito despite constant practice (which doesn’t make perfect in this case).
I was therefore delighted to get the chance to quiz him again when I bumped into him in Solas on Camden Street in Dublin recently. And why was he there, some way away from the sunny streets of the Cuban capital?
Well, five Havana Club Master Classes recently took place here in three Dublin venues:
Café en Seine, La Floridita and in Solas. Fortunately for me, Danel was one of those helping run these Cuban Master Classes.
Over 150 top bartenders – mostly from Dublin key accounts – attended the training sessions to learn more about the fast-growing profile of Havana Club Rum.

The Cuban Master Class team trained and educated attendees in the history, production and “culto de la vida” of Havana Club.
Apart from Danel, the other team members comprised Ramses Villar – Havana Club Brand Ambassador, Miguel Angel Diaz Vargas – Assistant Brand Ambassador and Damián Michel Domingues Perez – Barman promoter for Havana Club.
An interactive cocktail training session followed the presentation.

Havana Club International SA recently announced that Havana Club rum has surpassed the three million (nine-litre) case sales mark – a 15 per cent increase year-on-year . The impressive figures should now see the brand enter the Impact Top 30 and ensure it’s firmly on track to achieve its ambition of five million nine litre cases by 2013.

Between now and then, I might learn to make the perfect Cubanito….

 

Senator Cassidy, the village called, they’re missing their idiot

Surely in 2008 we don’t have to hear from embarrassing anachronisms like Senator Donie Cassidy any longer? Senator Cassidy has insulted his colleagues – and everyone else who drinks responsibly – by suggesting that several of them are not in a position to debate alcohol abuse as – unlike the good senator – they enjoy alcohol themselves.
I believe that this buffoonery helps crystalise the whole approach being taken to alcohol by such ignorant individuals.
The Pioneering senator smugly stated, “One cannot speak the sermon unless one lives by the Gospel”.
Seemingly ignoring the preening smugness of this remark, his remarks were quite rightly dismissed as ‘daft’ and ‘patent nonsense’ by his fellow senators.
However as a leader of the ruling Finna Fáil party in the Seanad, the senator holds a position of power – and it is clear that he should not; effectivly, he can decide which debates will proceed and which will not. Perhaps Senator Donie should take a look around the house. There are, by his own admission, only three other Pioneer senators. Which means that the rest of the Seanad take a drink. Which means that those not partaking are the ones in the minority – the only people running the asylum (or vice versa).
His crass comments about his fellow senators puts his credibility – always at a low ebb in my book – at drought levels and renders him – not his fellow senators – unable to speak intelligently on a proper national policy for alcohol, due to his jaundiced view.
The situation in the Senate is probably a fair reflection of society as a whole. Most of us take a drink and take gross offence at his suggestion that we’d be any less capable of clear-headedness in our work the following morning. However because one takes a drink of alcohol, drinks it responsibly even, the Senator and any like-minded individuals reckon that we’re all raving anti-social alcohol abusers and incapable of rational judgement.
His views do no credit to the many rational people who don’t partake of alcohol. He demeans their position by such silly comments. John Major ran away from a circus to become an accountant. I’d suggest that in the case of Senator Donie Cassidy, a village somewhere in this country is sorely missing its idiot….

 

Where’s this innovation then?

‘The on-trade environment will need to be pleasant and filled with lots of choice for the changing consumer. This must be combined with flexibility and innovation in the non-alcoholic offerings’.

So states AC Nielsen’s Tom Harper this month in our Expert View on the current health of the licensed trade.
But are his exhortations falling on deaf ears?
I’d given up the sauce for January and some of February.
But I missed the sociability of the pub.
So what did I do?
Only decided to meet my friends in a standard suburban Dublin pub.
So what was my choice?
Precious little, as it turns out, by way of non-alcoholic drinks – beers or more significantly from a profit perspective, cocktails…..
So why would a non-drinker choose to go to the pub?
Precious few  reasons I could give you, if this is what we could expect.
So why is today’s vintner so blinkered in his vision of what products to offer some one who does not want alcohol in the company of friends who do?
My own non-alcoholic repertoire started off with an alcohol-free beer or two – but more than that is intimidating to my stomach (which avoids loud noises). Then, for a change of pace, I might go for a Virgin Mary followed by a soft drink or a coffee. After that, however, I’m in trouble. Seldom can I find a non-alcoholic cocktail, seldom any other kind of alcohol-free drink.
So what do I do?
Cop out of going to the pub with my friends, that’s what, even though I could be that Designated Driver and earn some bonus points on my (usually low) social standing.
There’s a message here. And it’s for you. Consumers like me – on the wagon – are happy to go out and enjoy the sociability of the pub, but you’re really going to have to try a lot harder to entice me to stay — or to come out at all.
And remember, if I’m the Designated Driver, I’ll not only be taking my own business elsewhere, but that of three or four of my friends.

 

When less is more

To the tax-beer-to-the-hilt brigade, I offer the following observation…. With us already having the dubious pleasure of being the most highly taxed country in the EU for beer, it’s now becoming very definitely a case of less is more from the Exchequer’s point-of-view.
As has been seen across the pond, by increasing the tax on beer by nearly nine per cent over the past three years, the UK Treasury is going to see a diminishment in its excise revenues on this product, dropping from £29 million in 2007 to a figure nearer £17 million in 2008/2009, according to the British Beer & Pub Association.
What with sinking on-trade beer sales being sucked into the vortex of spiralling costs and lessening demand there, sales of beer in pubs have struck their lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The frothy, heady days of beer sales in the British pub peaked around 20 years ago. Since then beer sales in the on-trade have been in decline. Today, the pubs and clubs of Great Britain are selling 14 million pints less than in 1979 – and that’s 14 million pints less per day!
With all this going on, is the Chancellor seriously telling his public that raising the tax on beer in the Budget is going to lead to more income?
Let’s face it, beer sales are in trouble in the on-trade both here and in the UK and the on-trade is the only outlet which purportedly controls the environment in which people drink. Taxing beer will lead to more on-trade losses and increase the number of unsustainable businesses trying to keep their head above water. Result: further closures of rural pubs here and further isolation of rural communities, a rise in rural suicides and the loss of one more aspect of Irish culture that the developers haven’t already got to and seen off.
Are there lessons here for the tax-beer-to-the-hilt brigade?

 

Beamish & Crawford – could history repeat itself?

The question on most people’s lips in relation to Beamish & Crawford is “Can the Cork brewery survive ownership by Heineken?”.
A number of options are open to Heineken after it takes control of B&C should all go through ‘tickety-boo’.
The first of these would be to simply close down the brewery. In one fell swoop Heineken Ireland could rid itself of is second-greatest stout rival. However such a move would be deeply unpopular in Cork – and elsewhere – and may do a great deal of damage in the short term to Heineken Ireland.
On the up side though, it would then have some pretty prime property to dispose of right in the centre of Cork.
The other alternative would be to amalgamate both B&C and Heineken Ireland into a new greenfield site outside Cork and thus have at its disposal not one but two pretty prime properties in the lucrative centre of The Real Capital.
Apparently B&C’s new state-of-the-art bottling facility could be dismantled fairly easily and moved to such a greenfield site. Such a move would most likely be accompanied by a considerable slimming down of staff (across the board?) thanks to the economies of scale presented by the merger.
A third option would be to sell off the B&C operation to one prepared to pay a high price for the lucrative Miller franchise, presuming Miller was willing to be paid for. Some suggest that a major company is already sniffing the brewery air…. But it’s unlikely to be Diageo.
The real question is what will Heineken nv do with its stout rival?
A shrinking stout market and the economies of scale offered by the acquisition would inevitably pit the 190 workers at B&C against the much heavier-staffed Heineken Ireland operation.
But before all that, might we see a Management Buyout – to find history repeating itself?