State of play

[Tilly O]

I have been visiting Sam's pubs in the vale of York for over twenty years. What has struck me in the past 18 months is the number of landlords who have been forced to throw in the towel because of H's policies and practices. Manages at the Roebuck, Shoulder of Mutton (Appleton Roebuck), Malt Shovel (Oswaldkirk), and Royal Oak (Tad) have all moved on. These were managers who had been with the brewery for many years, with experience of keeping the beer and lager well, providing a good environment and a sense of stability. I can't understand why H is not valuing one of his biggest assets. As a result I have been in a number of his pubs where the beer hasn't been kept well by people who have only a temporary relationship with the pub and it's customers. The situation has gone from one of stability and quality (beer, food and environment) to a transient population of managers and reliefs, either forced out by H's policies and practices or sacked for not making the requisite profit - and for other "reasons". I was sorry to learn the plight of the latest casualties at the Royal Oak Tad, who have been working hard for the past five months but will now find themselves homeless in a week's time. There is an air of Dickensian England about all this...   

[Max]

Welcome aboard Tilly O 

It's very interesting, that your observations seem to be a fair representation of what's happening to most, if not all of the Sam's pubs.

I got a message from a customer only a couple of days ago, stating that their 'regulars', for the first time ever, don't wish to befriend new managers too much - as they don't last that long!

Another individual today, contacted me to state that at their local, the new managers (and there have been "several of late") have little experience, and no training, and despite their best efforts are making some mistakes. This would have been very unlikely in the past, when there was quality induction, training, experienced management support, and established experience leading to company loyalty, dedication to quality and good customer service.

Sadly - just one misguided individual has destroyed that! Damaging a business pioneered by his family - whilst destroying people lives and livelihoods. An individual with little sign of compassion or good business acumen. An individually who shows little if any respect to those he considers a lower class than himself. And in my opinion, an individual who is a mean and miserable bigot.

I consider myself in a class above Humphrey Smith - as I don't buy second-hand shoes, I don't send my wife out to work as a 'dinner lady', I am popular with my staff and customers. Further more - I don't drink and drive, and normally consider all human beings as equals. And of course, I always carry enough money and other means of payment on myself (not cheques) so that I can get around, and pay my way - such as catching a bus - although I'm fortunate that I do not need or use public transport very often. 

I suppose on reflection, just about everyone is in a class above that of Humphrey Smith!

[Coriolanus]

Well said Tilly and Max.
We have to keep pointing out this mans deficiencies and acts of incomprehensible ineptitude or else he will win. He believes that by ignoring complaints or by dragging on legal battles ad infinitum that he will eventually bore people into forgetting about his past misdemeanours or in the case of his legal cases, simply drag cases on until he finally gets the right result, or by spending thousands waiting for the 'opposition' to run out of money.
In this light, it seems as if a typical Smiths cock up is underway right now. As was pointed out earlier, he is in the process of introducing his own brand crisps and nuts......in the completely incompetent fashion that doomed his food venture to utter and abject failure. Now I am not attacking his right to introduce his own brand snacks as that is the sort of decision a chairman should be concerning himself with (whether right or wrong) but from what I hear most Sams pubs are going to be completely out of crisps and nuts for at least a month. The original directive demanded all managers should run out of old stocks by mid January and the new stuff would be available by the end of January. From what I have been told today, there have been problems and the next projected first delivery date will be 22nd Feb. Thus some pubs will be without crisps for the best part of a month.....not a complete disaster but another fine example of this mans complete incompetence and inability to organise what should have been a simple transition.
Of course when profits and sales go down during that month, it will be the poor managers who are blamed once again, instead of the real culprit for all this companies ills.....the man in charge, HS.
Also, of course, it once again demonstrates a complete failure to even consider his customers needs and to make sure they are catered for.
He did the same with the food by trying to rush an ill considered, poor quality menu upon his customers and the result is that most food customers were put off in the first few months, if not weeks of its hasty introduction. The man never learns from his mistakes, in fact it just seems to make him more determined to make them. If he was a company chairman with shareholders he would have been ousted 5 years ago when he first lost it by removing tellys, music and entertainment from every Sams pub without any consideration for customers or for the needs of each individual pub.
I keep thinking there must be light at the end of the tunnel but he just keeps finding new ways to make it darker.

[kettlesimon]

He should be made to run a pub for a month, under his rules and just see what a bad position he has put his managers in. You are quite right, if he had to answer to someone he would have been sacked months ago. Cant quite understand the crisp/nut thing as the brands that my local sells are top brand names and i cant see how he can improve on the quality of those. Its obviously down to price, but then if i wanted cheap crisps i would buy the local supermarkerts "savers" range. The man is an a**e and the sooner he is replaced the better.

[centurion]

We have to keep pointing out this mans deficiencies and acts of incomprehensible ineptitude or else he will win.

How can you tell a Yorkshireman?

Difficult, you can't tell a Yorkshireman NOWT

 If he was a company chairman with shareholders he would have been ousted 5 years ago.

For example, Tetleys, Terrys, Rowntrees, S&N, Cadbury's, Manchester Utd.etc?


I keep thinking there must be light at the end of the tunnel but he just keeps finding new ways to make it darker. Please see above!

[centurion]

Cant quite understand the crisp/nut thing as the brands that my local sells are top brand names and i cant see how he can improve on the quality of those. Its obviously down to price, but then if i wanted cheap crisps i would buy the local supermarkerts "savers" range.

 BINGO, suppliers put up the price by 30%

[OnTheDrink]

Cant quite understand the crisp/nut thing as the brands that my local sells are top brand names and i cant see how he can improve on the quality of those. Its obviously down to price, but then if i wanted cheap crisps i would buy the local supermarkerts "savers" range.

 BINGO, suppliers put up the price by 30%

In fairness, the new crisps won't be cheap and nasty, and pretty much anything is superior to McCoys overpriced cardboard. Remember, you're paying a premium for the shiny packet which is probably more expensive to produce than the contents.