Football a winner for pubs group

ENTERPRISE Inns, Britain's second-biggest pubs group, said it was spending less bailing out struggling tenants as trading improved on the back of the World Cup and the sale of underperforming pubs.

Enterprise, which has over 7,000 pubs in Britain, had been investing as much as 1.9 million a month on rent concessions and product discounts for publicans facing difficulties coping with the recession.

However, chief executive Ted Tuppen said yesterday the number had fallen substantially as trading conditions stabilised and the company's worst-performing pubs were sold.

"It is consistently coming down from the peaks of last year. It's continuing to reduce and an ever decreasing number of tenants are taking it," he said.

Britain's biggest pubs operator, Punch Taverns, said earlier this month that it expected tenant assistance to come down.

Pubs have battled with a torrid trading environment over the last two years as a smoking ban, recession, above-inflation increases in beer duties and cheap booze offers in supermarkets kept drinkers at home.

However, recent updates from JD Wetherspoon, Punch Taverns, Greene King and Fuller have pointed to an upturn.