The UK’s largest pub retailer and brewer, Greene King, will become a member of the British Hospitality Association, it was announced today.
The role of the British Hospitality Association is to champion the needs of hospitality and tourism businesses, securing and promoting competitiveness. As an industry employing some 10% of the UK’s workforce, employment issues have the greatest impact for the whole industry, together with challenges such as competitiveness, productivity, the digital marketplace and the changing regulatory landscape.
Rooney Anand, Greene King Chief Executive Officer said: “Our recent acquisition of Spirit Pub Company signals an opportunity to align more closely with our peers in the wider hospitality industry to provide a strong voice to government. We are committed to raising the visibility of the industry as it continues to drive the UK economy and deliver strong new job creation.”
Greene King has also pledged to be a keen supporter of the BHA’s long running campaign to inspire the next generation of young people into a career in hospitality and the company will participate in the BHA’s Big Hospitality Conversation events across the UK during 2016.
Rooney Anand continued: “With 42,000 team members at Greene King, including over 2,000 apprentices, our business priority is to attract, retain and develop the very best people. That is why we have decided to join the BHA, which has done so much to encourage more talent into hospitality and tourism.”
Ufi Ibrahim, Chief Executive of the British Hospitality Association said: “We are delighted to welcome Greene King into our membership. With employment issues currently taking centre stage, we are lobbying to help alleviate the huge impact of the National Living Wage on this industry and for the introduction of an Apprenticeship Training Academy to support SMEs and longer apprenticeship periods to allow for seasonality. Greene King will provide valuable perspective and leadership for the pub and brewing industry on these issues and many more.”
To become a member of the BHA contact membership@bha.org.uk
or 020 74047744
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For more information please contact: Julia Svetlosakova 07701 050216 Julia@bha.org.uk
Kirsty Leighton, Hudson Sandler KLeighton@
hudsonsandler.com 020 7796 4133
Notes to Editors
· Coinciding with this announcement, Greene King also released the results of its most recent Leisure Spend Tracker, which analyses the leisure spend of people in the UK, finding that 40% of people choose pubs as their first choice eating out destination.
· The Big Hospitality Conversation initiative has so far created almost 50,000 new job opportunities for young people in the UK.
· Greene King was this week named as a Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer by the National Apprenticeship Service.
· The BHA and the Department for Work and Pensions are running the national initiative, Hospitality Works throughout January 2016. The programme aims to inspire jobseekers by promoting opportunities and vacancies in the hospitality industry and equip work couches with tools to promote hospitality careers.
About Greene King
· Greene King, the pub retailer and brewer, was founded in 1799 and is headquartered in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. It employs 42,000 people following the recent acquisition of Spirit Pub Company.
· It operates c. 3,100 pubs, restaurants and hotels across England, Wales and Scotland, of which c. 1,900 are retail pubs, restaurants and hotels, and c. 1,200 are tenanted, leased and franchised pubs. Its leading retail brands include Hungry Horse, Old English Inns, Chef & Brewer and Flaming Grill.
· Greene King also brews quality ale brands from its Bury St. Edmunds and Dunbar breweries, with brands such as Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Abbot Ale and Belhaven Best.
About the British Hospitality Association
The British Hospitality Association is the private sector forum for the UK’s 6th largest contributor to export earnings and 4th largest employer. Hospitality and tourism (combined) directly employ 4.5 million people or 10% of the workforce and over 180,000 businesses. Together we present a clear choice for Government and the hospitality & tourism industry. Either we are content with the ‘steady as she goes’ approach or we jointly pilot a path for a more ambitious strategy. Putting the right policies in place offers us all a considerable prize – growth which delivers 100,000 new jobs by 2020.
The BHA aims to be the single most powerful voice actively championing the interests of the whole industry and its business partnership scheme enables the best suppliers and partners to the industry to participate in developing insight and sharing best practice.
Find out more follow us on twitter @BHAtweets and www.
bha.org.uk.