Archie appears to have logged off for the afternoon. I have added a question mark as you suggest.
Admin
Not only is this another of those threads where someone's wanted to jump in with a negative, tittle tattling, assumption but Admin also knows that Archie won't be logging on for a while - clever!
Archie appears to have logged off for the afternoon. I have added a question mark as you suggest.
Admin
I have removed the question mark. The Diamond Tap with its low priced booze and cheap food killed the trade at the KC overnight. Other local pubs are also suffering. All of you whingers on this site will soon be complaining that every pub in Newbury has closed. Just wait until the Hatchet opens and takes even more trade away.
Newbury is supposed to be an affluent town, but everyone is penny pinching at the moment.
So you know for a fact that the KC closed because of the DT? Dare I ask, do you have any evidence for this, such as confirmation from the landlord, or are you still guessing?
I'd hazard a guess the manager at the KC got fed-up with being fleeced by the breweries for his hard work.
Pubs and breweries in Newbury have been ripping us off for ages, it is about time pressure was applied. I'm not saying we need £2.00 a pint, but the prices in some pubs, like the LSB, and others, is staggering.
Why is prefering to spend £2.00 on a pint rather than £3.50 penny pinching?
If the DT can sell beer at £2.00, so could every other pub.
And are you really suggesting that after one night the KC decided to shut?
The Wetherspoons business model is very different from a place like the KC - for a start the DT can hold hundreds of customers while the KC would struggle to fit 30 - so there are massive economies of scale available. I suspect that there is no way that the KC could turn a resonable profit at £2 a pint.
Both are, of course tied houses, one to a brewery (Greene King) and the other to Wetherspoons - not that a tie to Wetherspoons is a problem. Unlike other pubcos like Punch and Enterprise they are not forcing the landlord to pay inflated prices for the beer.
It will be sad if the KC goes, it's a much nicer pub than the DT - but the days of small town centre pubs are numbered. I hope some manage to survive elsewhere.
The Wetherspoons business model is very different from a place like the KC - for a start the DT can hold hundreds of customers while the KC would struggle to fit 30 - so there are massive economies of scale available. I suspect that there is no way that the KC could turn a resonable profit at £2 a pint.
Both are, of course tied houses, one to a brewery (Greene King) and the other to Wetherspoons - not that a tie to Wetherspoons is a problem. Unlike other pubcos like Punch and Enterprise they are not forcing the landlord to pay inflated prices for the beer.
It will be sad if the KC goes, it's a much nicer pub than the DT - but the days of small town centre pubs are numbered. I hope some manage to survive elsewhere.
the DT is part of a national chain but brews no beer. The KC is owned by a brewery. The Brewery, should it want to keep the KC open, could.
I agree though - the pubcos have been having too much a a good time in Newbury for a long, long time. Weatherspoons wanted the old Daniel store years ago but were refused.
Punch and Enterprise should be seen as property companies that also happen to own pubs. It is their inability to realise and reflect local needs that has allowed Wetherspoons to flourish. It is a shame when a decent hard-working landlord/ tenant/ manager goes to the wall because of the inflexible greed of his owners. If the K.C. has gone tits-up then that's quite sad. I would have thought though that their regular crowd were not exactly the type that the DT were trying to attract. Seems odd, if this report is true, that the KC fell over in so little time.
Punch and Enterprise should be seen as property companies that also happen to own pubs. It is their inability to realise and reflect local needs that has allowed Wetherspoons to flourish. It is a shame when a decent hard-working landlord/ tenant/ manager goes to the wall because of the inflexible greed of his owners.
They may well treat their pubs as property investments - meaning they have no real interest in keeping them as pubs (eg the Blue Ball) - but they are more than simply property companies as they still operate tenancy agreements and beer ties (and worse), just like the breweries that used to own the pubs. They are able to source cheap beer, just like Wetherspoons, but, unlike Wetherspoons they don't pass the saving on to their landlords and hence to the punters. Instead they force their landlords to buy supplies from them at inflated prices.
If the K.C. has gone tits-up then that's quite sad. I would have thought though that their regular crowd were not exactly the type that the DT were trying to attract. Seems odd, if this report is true, that the KC fell over in so little time.
I doubt that a tenant making a good living from the KC would have packed up and left quite so quickly - but, if the arrival of the DT meant that sales plummetted, then this could have prompted a struggling landlord to call it a day.
Perhaps Green King can find another tenant, or someone to buy it and keep it going - I hope so, but I'm not optimistic.
Do we know for certain that it's gone then? Threep.
"A spokeswoman for Greene King IPA, which owns the Cheap Street pub, Belinda Curtis, said that the present tenants were understood to be leaving, but added that there was no new tenant lined up for the pub. "
I very much doubt the KC was killed off by the Diamond Tap given the latter has only been open a few weeks and they're aimed at very different markets. One is cheap and cheerful whilst the other serves good food and has a great atmosphere, or should that be "had".
It does seem a bit strange given every time I've been in the KC it's been packed sometimes with 50 to 75 customer and whenever I walk past after work there were folk in there.
Was this a tenancy or a managed house. There is considerable difference. A Tenant has a lease from the owners, loosely called breweries, which normally means that he, the tenant, owns the stock in trade, and the fixtures and fittings. There is therefore some financial incentive for him to stay in place but of course his income depends on the trading profit of the pub. A manager is a fixed wage employee of the brewery and whilst he may have bonus opportunity can be hired and fired by his/her employer. Some managed houses allow managers to profit from the food sales but usually, not to the detriment of beer sales.
So, business gone bust or the manager sacked or absconded, with or without the cash in the till.
This is all alleged, but I've heard that the pub went through a lean period at the beginning of the year. I've also heard that he did spend some of his own money on the place, but he has thrown the towel in as he realises that he's unable to make a reasonable living. Rents just keep going up and it eats into any margin he makes for himself. The regular to the KC that spoke to Pat on Sunday who told me this, didn't mention anything about the Diamond Tap.
This is all alleged, but I've heard that the pub went through a lean period at the beginning of the year. I've also heard that he did spend some of his own money on the place, but he has thrown the towel in as he realises that he's unable to make a reasonable living. Rents just keep going up and it eats into any margin he makes for himself. The regular to the KC that spoke to Pat on Sunday who told me this, didn't mention anything about the Diamond Tap.
But the obvious popularity of a big, new pub only a few yards up the road must have been the last straw under the circumstances.
Great Opportunity to run a thriving town centre business with a fantastic reputation built on quality food and drink!
THE KCT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY RUN FOR 5 YEARS BY THE SAME OPERATOR AND MOULDED INTO A QUALITY TOWN CENTRE BUSINESS WITH THE EMPHASIS ON GREAT BEER AND GREAT FOOD IN A RELAXED ATMOSPHERE! A LOCALS PUB AMIDST A THRIVING MARKET TOWN.
COSTS £35,500 which includes £14,000 fixtures & fittings. Stock, glassware, crockery, cutlery, fuel & cleaning materials, legal, brokers and stocktaking fees, rent in advance, security bond of £13,500 and working capital £8,000.
RENT £33,000 per annum, £634.62 per week fixed and subject to annual RPI increase (tracker capped at a maximum of 4.75%) on anniversary of agreement. Paid weekly by direct debit.
The KC is beeing run in a joint venture with 2 parties, one beeing the landlord of the Wagon and Horese. This is a holding situation on a short term agreement
The KC is beeing run in a joint venture with 2 parties, one beeing the landlord of the Wagon and Horese. This is a holding situation on a short term agreement
Interesting, wonder what the long term prospects are then....
Popped in on Friday for a drink, but the chap said they were not serving food until hopefully the weekend after, ie 25th/26th.
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