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The pub industry has undergone several changes to its focus and thus transformed itself from a beverage operation to a food and beverage operation. The article seeks to examine these changes in terms of food quality, management skills, service and customers. The article outlines the factors for success and also includes factors of failure or negative aspects of pub catering. It aims to prove that such changes have made pubs an acceptable part of everyday family life, more profitable, and viewed as a place of fun, relaxation, good food and not only as a drinking tradition. It seeks to analyse the new great English Tradition of pub catering.

A comprehensive development of the pub is provided highlighting its role in society. The environmental forces leading to the changes in pub visiting are presented. The pub as a tourist attraction is discussed as an option for the sustainable preservation of the pub. Suggestions are made for pubs to tap into the heritage and cultural tourist market.

The purpose of this article is to examine the food provision in the public houses of a small town.

This research has been undertaken using a survey of customers and a series of structured interviews with pub licensees and their staff.

The findings suggest that there are several areas essential to effective food provision. These include the location of the pub, its atmosphere, the quality of the service, the menu choice, the price, the ambience of the outlet and its marketing.

The article is limited to one small town. Results may be different elsewhere, particularly in larger towns and cities.

The article provides some evidence of the factors favoured by customers and the failure of some pubs to address these preferences.

This article offers some knowledge and understanding in relation to the provision of pub food.

The purpose of this article is to summarise the evolution of pub food in the UK.

This research uses secondary data.

The provision of food has increased enormously in recent years and has become a vital element to the economics of many outlets.

The article does not have the data to consider how many pubs really benefit from their food provision.

The article provides general information about the nature of the food provision and a generalization about the economic benefits.

This article offers some knowledge and understanding in relation to the provision of pub food.

The article considers the changes in the structure of the UK pub sector and the falling pattern of trade which occurred at the same time. This meant that the competition within the industry is intense. The major pub‐owning companies enjoy many economies of scale over their independent rivals. These have been considered briefly. Many of the smaller outlets have responded by adapting their pubs to meet the varying requirements of their customers. The demand for pubs with smoke‐free air and the evidence that this will increase trade have been investigated. The threat of legislation has led the industry to establish a voluntary scheme. Reports on its effectiveness have been studied, and a small local study undertaken. It appears that the big companies are swifter than their smaller rivals at taking advantage of this market demand.

Much like their residential counterparts, commercial leases have a reputation problem. Although often derided as painfully dull and mundane documents, residential leases have begun to be interrogated by socio-legal scholarship with renewed interest. This paper aims to continue this line of work in the commercial context through a detailed examination of a widespread form of leasehold in the pub sector: the “tied lease”.

The paper draws on interviews with 14 publicans and archival research.

The author argues that the lease is a decisive actor in determining the balance of power between publicans and pub-owning companies and shaping the physical environment of pubs in the UK.

The author’s broader agenda is to argue that socio-legal scholars’ renewed interest in leases should not be confined to the residential context: commercial leases warrant far greater socio-legal scholarly attention.

Nottingham Business School recently validated a suite of generic qualifications based round the theme of leisure retailing. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Advanced Diploma, where one of the first cohorts on the programme was pub managers and area managers from J.D. Wetherspoon.

This paper presents the findings of a telephone survey of 17 pub managers and three area managers who had successfully completed the Advanced Diploma in 2005.

Around eight out of ten pub managers interviewed reported positive impressions of the course and went on to state that their property had increased sales, profits, customer and staff satisfaction. Results from company sales and performance data support the impressions created by these qualitative interviews. Sales, gross profit and unit profit performance all show overall improvements in performance compared to company averages.

Apart from students obtaining a university qualification it would appear that in every case individual pubs reported a substantial improvement in their business. The other implication is that the way in which these students are able to obtain a degree might well become the accepted alternative to full time education and all the financial implications that go with it.

The paper provides a model for evaluating the impacts of education and training interventions that could be employed by both university teams and professional in‐company trainers.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the main changes to the British pub brought about by the Beer Acts.

There has been a heavy use of secondary sources drawn from the whole of the period studied. This has been augmented by discussions with licensees, retired licensees and older pub customers, to collect their reflections on the industry.

The paper finds that ownership of public houses has changed, and the brewers ceased to be pub owners. Separate pub‐owning companies have emerged, involved in either retailing or renting. Long leases were offered instead of short tenancies. The struggle for customers has hastened changes to the industry, so that pubs are now concerned with customer satisfaction and appealing to specific sectors of the market. Government legislation and external factors have also influenced these changes.

The paper reports the changes in the industry, and examines some of the causes. It is also shows that further work could examine the causes more carefully, and could include regional studies for comparison purposes.

The paper demonstrates the extent of change, and suggests that further change is likely.

The paper shows that there have been other attempts to examine the history of the public house. This is the most detailed, and as such could be of interest to the general reader as well as practitioners and students of the hospitality industry.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

For much of the twentieth century, British breweries made profits from producing beer and selling it to the public houses, and then, because they owned the public houses as well, made further profits by selling to the consumer. The government investigated this perceived monopoly, and required changes, as a result of which, in the 1990s, the brewers and the pub owners tended to separate, so that many pub owning companies did not brew, but had to rely upon profits derived from sales to the general public. This led to a far greater emphasis on customer satisfaction and so public houses have tried to attract particular sections of the market. At the same time, the public were becoming more specific in their desire for leisure entertainment. As a result, the nature of the public house changed. Some traditional houses may still exist, but in addition there are many others designed for different groups of people. This study tries to identify the main features of some of the pubs that are currently popular.