Fair Maintainable Trade (FMT), Comparables, Reasonably Efficient Operator (REO), Competent Operator.
FMT (Fair Maintainable Trade) and REO (Reasonably Efficient Operator) as still used by some though undefined, Competent Operator.
FMT that obscenely used title for making wildly speculative estimations of a businesses future business, to ensure that the rental levels confirm the freehold investment values to satisfy bank borrowings or backers, disregarding viability.
REO another totally misinterpreted title, the quote in the dictionary explanation or Reasonably Efficient as a moderate operator, not a Retail Genius or 3 star Michelin Chef, which the majority of pub owning companies seem to demand these days as an REO, if they fail to meet this criteria they are listed as a Retailer Failure and their careers in the industry have a very limited span.
Sadly these honest, decent people in the main, walk into these Tied Pub Co Leased or Tenants at Will (TAW) jungle, listen to the training schedule and believe that they Masters of the Pub Universe when they take over.
You’re not, you’re entering a minefield of totally legal activities, by companies who get called brewers, they don’t brew beer they are very large property companies, most of them, they are legally avoiding the New Legislation which was brought in to stop their activities and has failed miserably in many peoples eyes.
The Pub Co Adjudicator (PCA) is supposed to enforce and arbitrate the New Legislation, but the devious thinking by the Pub Co’s high priced lawyers appear to run rings round the PCA and the hapless Tenants/Lessees do not get the benefit of the New Legislation.
So nothing changes, the only thing that we can say is do not have anything to do with these companies until they comply totally with the Legislation.
It didn’t used to be like this, the old brewers knew exactly what their market share in an area was, if one pubs business went down another would go up, their FMT’s collectively throughout their estate would possibly estimate 6-7% increase in brewed products.
Comparables, another miss used term, when applied to a specific catchment area with years of detailed records, it was relevant.
Being applied across the country, with no accurate analysis, the assumption that all pubs are the same within a ten or twenty mile radius, is wholly inaccurate, yet these valuers still use it. LINK
Now some of my old friends breweries have been taken over by hard nosed money men, where people count for nothing, FMT’s are guessed at doubling the capacity of the brewery, a physical impossibility.
The sad thing is all these terms worked in a designated area, where there had been years of detailed supply/sales records to all the Pubs supplied by individual Brewers.
With the regrettable creation of the present major Pub Co’s, who are supposed to be controlled by the New Legislation, which they have legally avoided complying with, the old terms have been hijacked and miss used to their financial advantage.
These terms cannot be used outside specific catchment areas with any accuracy without many years of accurate analysis, every catchment area is totally different.
You cannot compare a busy town centre with an urban or rural area, the variation in the sales and the nature of the business vary enormously.
Worth Reading LINK
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