Thursday 19 December 2013

Heineken Boss Talks Sense


The Morning Advertiser has a good piece on pubs by Heineken UK boss, David Forde.  It isn't often I find so much to agree with from such a person, but he seems pretty much on the money here to me in calling for pubs to give customers a much better experience than they currently do and for better training for staff. He also encourages customers to complain about bad service and beer.

You can read it all here.

Remember the Tandleman motto - "It's the offer Stupid".

Mr Forde estimates that 30% of beer serves are inadequate in some way. He is being conservative I'd say, but a shocking figure when you think about it.

8 comments:

beersiveknown said...

thanks for the link, interesting article

Did you mean "little to agree with"?

Tandleman said...

No. I do agree with him. Perhaps I'll change it. Double negatives can confuse. Thanks Steve.

Tandleman said...

Changed!

Cooking Lager said...

Click "like"

Pivní Filosof said...

This reminds me of something I saw during my visit to one of H's breweries here in CZ. How much care they put, or at least try to put, at the end of the production line, the pub. They had at that brewery a mock pub with all the bells and whistles mainly to teach owners how to best take care of the beer.

Curmudgeon said...

He has a point, but the piece does have a whiff of corporate box-ticking about it.

And of course there are plenty of other things people look for in pubs apart from service - choice, price and quality of drinks, comfort, general atmosphere, food, Sky Sports etc.

Indeed Wetherspoons seem to prosper despite the (in my experience) frequently lamentable bar service.

Tandleman said...

Mudgie. Always the misery guts.

Cooking Lager said...

All people speak from the perspective of their own self interest. That is different from corporate box-ticking. Few interviews containing the phrase "arse cheek of the same cow" are corporate box-ticking.

That's not to say he isn't offering an opinion based on the best interests of his corporate outfit, but it is a revealing and insightful interview of a chap that appears to know the game he is in.

Ted Tuppen never gave that impression, Tim Martin does. It's not about saying things you agree with, it's giving the impression he know how to make a quid flogging stuff to punters.

In the grocery business Terry Leahy always gave an interview that made it appear he knew the game he was playing. On Jeff Randall last night, Philip Clarke didn't and never really has.