CHEERS! New pub is strictly not for profit
BRITAIN’S first not-for-profit pub has opened in Birmingham – with ten per cent of every order going to charity.
The brainchild of brewer David Craddock and aptly named The Good Intent, it has set up in the city’s historic Great Western Arcade.
Mr Craddock, who already runs four pubs and owns Craddock’s Brewery, wanted to open a bar with a difference.
“If you’re not happy when you own four pubs and a brewery, you will never be happy,” he said.
“My industry is being killed entirely by greed – and it’s very easy to fall into that trap if you’re successful of always chasing more money.
“Working in pubs, you meet a lot of blokes in their late 50s who’ve been very successful. They wait until they get their first health scare then they realise there’s more to life than money.
“But when they try to spend time with their family, they find they all hate them because they’ve been ignored for the last 20 years, because money was more important.
“I didn’t want to be that guy, so at 37 with two young children, I couldn’t see the reason to grow my business. I thought I could do something different, something nice.
“I didn’t see myself on some kind of committee or volunteering somewhere, I already coach youngsters in rugby, so I thought ‘Why don’t I stick to what I’m good at, and donate from that?’
“I want people to be able to get to Friday night and have their drink and feel good about it.”
For the first 12 months, profits from The Good Intent will go to the charity LoveBrum, which donates to various projects across the city.
Mr Craddock’s other pubs are The King Charles House, in Worcester, The Talbot, in Droitwich, and The Duke William and Plough and Harrow, both in Stourbridge.
“I’ve never made more than eight per cent profit in my other pubs, so 10 per cent will be a bit extra, hopefully,” he said.
Mr Craddock, who had his first pub as a tenant at the age of 21, says making The Good Intent a reality has been helped enormously by the generosity of others.
The publican, who lives with wife
Rachel, 37, and children Bethan, aged four, and eight-year-old Arthur, said: “It’s been fabulous. From the start it’s been like pushing at an open door.
“We’ve only been open a few weeks but the project itself is more than two years old, and it’s been a £300,000 project putting it together. Lots of people have helped us along the way, the builder, the furniture companies, the public, a property lawyer...
“People have been incredibly generous. This pub will probably be the most profitable one I have, but it’s profits going to charity.
“I don’t draw a salary, the staff get paid, the beer gets paid – and that’s it.
“I’m already selling all the beer we produce from the brewery in the other four pubs, so I don’t even sell more beer.
“We’ll have to have guest ales in the other pubs.”
Hannah Whiting, from LoveBrum, says: “We couldn’t be more thrilled to have been chosen by The Good Intent as their first charity partner.
“Every penny donated from their profits will be distributed to small projects across the breadth of the city that all play a role in making Birmingham even better.”
My industry is being killed entirely by greed – and it’s very easy to fall into that trap Brewer David Craddock