eti industry pubs founded 1991 headquarters solihull west midlands key people robert walker chairman simon townsend chief executive products public house leases and tenancies revenue 632 million 2014 1 operating income 286 million 2014 1 net income 30 million 2014 1 number of employees 505 2012 2 website www.enterpriseinns.com enterprise inns plc is the largest pub company in the uk with around 5 000 properties predominantly run as leased and tenanted pubs . enterprise is headquartered in solihull west midlands . the company is listed on the london stock exchange . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 reflections on business practice 4 references 5 external links history edit enterprise inns was founded by ted tuppen in 1991 initially with 368 pubs from bass . the company listed on the london stock exchange in 1991 . 3 the group made a series of acquisitions including 1 864 former whitbread pubs from laurel pub company in 2002 ; the acquisition of the unique pub company with an estate of 4 054 pubs . 3 enterprise inns had over 9 000 pubs on completion of the acquisition of the unique pub company and it formed part of the ftse100 index at that time . 4 however the decline in the uk pub trade led to its removal from the ftse100 in 2008 . 5 in the face of the level of its debts the company stopped paying dividends to shareholders in 2009 . 6 the group has sold many pubs with 5 493 remaining at the end of september 2013 . 1 ted tuppen stood down as chief executive in february 2014 . 7 operations edit the pubs are operated by tenants which means that the company collects rent from individuals who live in and operate the pubs . they also operate in most but not all cases what is known as a beer tie . this means that tenants renting public houses from them are under contract to buy beer ciders rtds and other alcoholic drinks from enterprise inns only . under some leases tenants are required to also purchase other products such as soft drinks wines and spirits from enterprise although this is not as widespread as the beer tie . in the year to 30 september 2013 the net income of enterprise inns 373m was derived 186m profit on sale of beer cider and flavoured alcoholic beverages to its tenants being a margin of 43 % on sales of 436m ; 174m rental income from tenants ; 6 m cost of discretionary concessions to tenants ; 7m profit on sale of wines spirits and minerals ; 12m profit on machines and other income . 8 in the year to 30 september 2013 there were 579 business failures with tenants being 257 agreement failures and 322 agreement surrenders . the rate of failures in that one year represents 10.5 % of the size of the estate and was less than in the recent past . 8 the enterprise inns group had net debt of 2 521m at 30 september 2013 . the pubs and other assets were valued at 3 997m . 1 reflections on business practice edit on may 12 2009 the guardian newspaper reported how enterprise inns counts cost of bad pub landlords the recession had forced the pubco to take action against more than 100 poor quality and underperforming licensees since last autumn . it is spending 1.4 m a month on financial assistance to help those in distress on top of the 700 000 a month cost of freezing the price of five lager and ale brands . chief executive ted tuppen told the guardian if people are genuinely struggling and will work with us we are providing an awful lot of help . the cost of these programmes was however contributing to a slump in profits . 9 however on may 13 2009 a different perspective on the problems of pubcos emerged with the publication of a house of commons report 10 regarding a monopolies inquiry into pub groups . the report raises a series of questions about the pub company pubco tied pub business model and calls on the government to act urgently in particular to refer the matter to the competition commission . it challenges the pubcos which operate a tie to prove its benefits by giving lessees the choice between a tied or free of tie lease . 11 the report also raises issues regarding the actual conduct of pubcos in dealing with struggling tenants . committee chairman peter luff mp says the report explicitly acknowledges that not all the problems of the pub industry come from the tied pub model . it is clear there are many pressures on any retail business ... nonetheless our inquiry found alarming evidence indicating there may be serious problems caused by the dominance of the large pub companies . 11 according to an article in private eye the select committee asked 1 000 publicans for their opinions regarding their experiences working with britain s largest pubcos which includes enterprise inns . the eye states that the committee s findings had at last shed light on an industry in freefall with 40 pubs closing in the uk every week . pubcos are essentially greedy property companies with a cuddly name and they own nearly half the country s pub freeholds . 12 the committee commissioned its own independent survey as part of the inquiry to determine whether the negative evidence it initially received from lessees was typical of feelings in the industry . 11 the survey results printed with the committee s evidence underpinned the committee s findings . 64 per cent of lessees did not think their pubco added any value and while a fifth had had a dispute with their pubco few 18 per cent were satisfied with the outcome . the committee was astonished to learn that 67 per cent of the lessees surveyed earned less than 15 000 pa and over 50 per cent of the lessees who had turnover of more than 500 000 pa earned less than 15 000 a 3 per cent rate of return . the lessees may share the risks with their pubco but they do not appear to share the benefits . the report therefore concludes that problems which were identified by the trade and industry committee four years ago remain . an imbalance of bargaining power between lessees and pubcos persists and the arrangements for assessing rents remain opaque . rental assessment should be the basis for negotiation but incumbent lessees often risk the loss of their home as well as their business if they can not reach agreement the report says . 11 the eye says the committee found that pubco tenants are initially attracted to run pubs by low entry costs but soon find that making a decent living is very difficult . tenants leases oblige them to buy alcoholic drinks from nominated suppliers at up to twice the open market price . if a struggling tenant leaves another tenant can be found to replace them . in the years of booming property prices this practice was successful but is much less so now as evidenced by the number of pub closures . the guardian reported that mps found an imbalance of power that can amount to downright bullying between the big pubcos such as enterprise inns and punch taverns and their tenants . 13 in 2008 one tenant who felt forced to close the pub he ran with his wife said we told enterprise inns we were struggling and needed some help ; they didn t come forward with any . if we were late paying bills we would get threatening phone calls . they could have put a hold on the rent or given us a discount until we managed to get business back up . if we didn t pay bills on time they wouldn t deliver the beer and when they did deliver it they would charge us for carriage . instead of helping us they were making it worse . 14 the mps are said to also want a ban on pubcos selling pub premises with covenants that prevent them being used as pubs in the future . ted tuppen explained the need for covenants to the committee by saying there are too many pubs in some areas and enterprise used restrictive covenants because genuinely we think these are pubs that have lived their life . however he admitted that 70 % of enterprise sales have such covenants in place . 13 the select committee was not generally impressed by the pubcos senior executives rebuking them for having given partial and even false evidence to the committee . 12 the committee recommended that the tying of beers other drinks and ancillary products should be severely limited to ensure that competition in the retail market is restored . the eye notes that select committee chairman peter luff may be looking to right the wrong created by the thatcher government s disastrous beer orders of 1989 in which he was involved . 15 shortly following the committee s report camra issued a super complaint forcing the office of fair trading to investigate this within 90 days . the oft published its report on 22 october 2009 . the report largely cleared the industry of behaving in any way that caused damage to consumers . 16 in 2013 a pub owned by the company called the london unity located on islingword road brighton in brighton was saved up until it was decided it would be sold and possibly converted into apartments . 17 references edit a b c d e annual report 2014 pdf . enterprise inns . retrieved 28 march 2015 . annual report 2012 page 68 a b catering & hospitality news . retrieved 28 march 2015 . bbc news business uk s biggest pubs group created . bbc.co.uk . retrieved 28 march 2015 . enterprise inns ferrexpo set to exit ftse 100 . reuters uk . retrieved 28 march 2015 . update 2 enterprise inns puts off restoring dividend . reuters uk . retrieved 28 march 2015 . interim management statement a b fy13 preliminary results presentation the gauardian enterprise inns counts cost of bad pub landlords retrieved 06 14 2009 house of commons . business and enterprise committee pub companies retrieved 06 07 2009 a b c d mps publish report on pub companies retrieved 06 07 2009 a b private eye . pubs all tied and emotional retrieved 06 07 2009 a b mps urge monopolies inquiry into pub groups retrieved 06 07 2009 huddersfield examiner another local closes retrieved 06 14 2009 private eye . pubs all tied and emotional . p. 2 retrieved 06 07 2009 office of fair trading website oft publishes response to camra super complaint retrieved 06 nov 2009 neil vowles saved brighton pub to be converted into flats the argus september 25 2013 external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to enterprise inns . enterprise inns plc official site enterprise inns profile from caterersearch profile of enterprise inns chief executive ted tuppen voted most influential man in uk pub industry in 2005 companies portal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title enterprise inns & oldid 711223225 categories companies established in 1991hotel and leisure companies of the united kingdomcompanies listed on the london stock exchangecompanies based in the west midlands county 1991 establishments in englandhidden categories commons category with page title same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschfran ais edit links this page was last modified on 21 march 2016 at 16