Off-Piste Thinking

People tend not to call me when they have an operation that's running beautifully and is highly profitable.

Instead clients bring me their problems.

Recently I got a call from a pub company with a tricky one - eight problem sites that they had inherited and that were failing as managed houses.

What should they do? We looked at the problem from every angle, including, of course, the business side.

But we also went a bit off-piste and took a close look at the lease details and the underlying landlords. What we found was interesting: that the landlords in question were pub companies too, themselves subsidiaries of a larger brewer and pub group.

By following the chain of ownership to its conclusion, we were able to broaden the issue and create the possibility of pub swaps.

In the end my client was able to exchange the failing sites. Both parties to the deal ended up with pubs that fitted better in their respective portfolios.

That is my job in a nutshell: to think creatively about what clients put in front of me.

Simon Hall, Leeds

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