Brains boss tells of his frustrations over half measures for reopening
THE boss of Brains said the brewery might not bother to reopen any of its pubs on July 13. CEO of the Welsh firm Alistair Darby has revealed its pubs will “struggle” to restock in time. The 53-year-old boss also shared his frustration at the lack of time to prepare, how they want pubs to fully reopen soon and that plans to sell off 40 sites are effectively on hold.
It comes after the Welsh Government announced plans on Thursday that mean pubs and restaurants can partially reopen from July 13. Bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants will be able to reopen outdoors from that date if cases of coronavirus continue to fall.
Speaking to the Western Mail yesterday Mr Darby said although it’s a positive step, it still left him feeling frustrated.
Mr Darby said: “We are encouraged that there are signs beginning that the Welsh Government is preparing to reopen the hospitality sector. That is good news. What is very disappointing and frustrating though is that we still haven’t got actually confirmation of a reopening date for pubs in total, what we’ve got is a potential date for opening of gardens only – and that date is only subject to being confirmed on July 9.
“And in addition to that, if we were to consider opening gardens and they are confirmed for opening on July 13, we are currently not in possession of what operational guidelines they are expecting us to meet.
“The planning situation is unbelievably difficult. It’s been suggested that outdoors might be able to reopen on July 13. That decision is only going to be confirmed, or not, on July 9, and in between now and then we’re not in possession of any guidelines as to what is expected of us if we were to reopen gardens.”
One issue faced by pubs and breweries is that beer takes time to be produced, with some firms worried 10 days isn’t close to what they need.
Mr Darby said the company has “consistently” told all governments that in order to restock their supply chains and reopen pubs they need four weeks’ notice or a minimum of three.
Mr Darby, who took over the role in July 2018, said: “Now yesterday’s [Thursday’s] announcement has effectively given us only 10 days.
“So there is actually a very serious problem in that terms of draught beer and draught soft drinks and so on, it is, even if we were allowed to open on July 13 it is highly likely we would not be able to stock those pubs because we’ve had insufficient notice.
“The way this works is that if you’re going to brew high-quality beer, the production process takes two weeks to brew the beer and get it to a point where it is ready for packaging.
“You’ve then got to get it into the supply chain and that adds potentially another week. Then you’ve got to get it into depots and then into pubs. The beers we brew aren’t the only ones we sell in our pubs. We sell brands like Carling and so on. You have to consolidate all those brands into the depot and then deliver them to the pubs.”
Even with three weeks’ notice, he said that would be “pushing it really tight”.
Mr Darby said: “So most of us are going to really struggle to get pubs restocked for a reopening of gardens on July 13, if indeed we bother to reopen.”
When asked if Brains had made a decision on whether it will reopen on