45 Questions you should be asking your Pub Company
The market is awash with pubs to let. Either under a tenancy or a lease agreement. There is also a growing market for self-employed managers, but if you don’t know, they take a % of the sales to pay for staffing the pub (however this may be in breach of off payroll or IR35 legislation read our blog HERE).
The issue remains in how to sort a good deal from a bad one. If you have never been in the trade, our list is designed to help you by asking key questions. If you get answers to all of them that is excellent. You are going to be in a fantastic position to make an informed choice before you sign up.
However, the more questions unanswered or avoided ( a typical non-answer = “every pub is different” etc) is bad news. You risk making a leap of faith. If you get lots of missed or non answers, the alarm bells should be ringing loudly as the biggest pub companies in Britain have been running rent models for decades. They have extensive data on the costs, the sales and the numbers that work. So there should be no reason not to have any answers. Read below to see what the Pubs Advisory Service recommends you ask the pub company.
45 Questions to ask a Pub Company
- How long has your business been going?
- How long has the rent model you are offering been in operation for?
- How experienced is the team running it?
- What is your financial investment in the business?
- Who owns the intellectual property?
- What’s your vision for the business, if our vision differs does it matter?
- What is the average level of trade a pub achieves?
- Will you confirm when the pub was last self insuring and running all the risk, so does the reward when open, reflect this or is the rent sufficiently low enough for it not to be a problem if closed. Many publicans have gone insolvent because they had no clause in the lease they could rely upon.
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- NEW ADDITION 2025 Licensing reviews, is the pub under a review or the threat of a review, does the landlord know of any licensing issues or complaints which could curtail the operation, opening hours or impact on the cost of running the business.