---- Forwarded Usenet-message ----
From: Denny 
Newsgroups: uk.food+drink.real-ale
Subject: Re: GBBF 2008
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:32:22 +0100
URL:  
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In article
,
    alebuff  wrote:


> 5.  SNIP.
> Current members get small benefit from it, with expensive entry fees
> and beer.  This is a deliberate policy of the executive, who do the
> pricing.

In the past there have been a lot of rumor & fallacies about how you
get beers in CBOB... CAMRA is addressing that issue by being more open
with the procedure so I thought that I'd put the record straight about
beer pricing too.

As a GBBF volunteer of 28 years standing, and who has been past beer
orderer & current stock controller along with Sarah D for the last 12
years I feel I am qualified to comment on the price of beer at GBBF.
It is done on site by 3 volunteers, once all prices have been received
and beers delivered - This year it was 1 NE member, who has links to
but not necessarily Finance Exec and one "ordinary" member (me) & one
employee of CAMRA.   I have been involved with the prices sheet since
John Cryne stepped down from the organising committee and it is a
model which is used successfully at many local festivals as well. It
has not changed significantly in this time because the format works...
and... apart from a few (I stress FEW) complaints which are received
via the feedback forms and on forums like this, it generally seems to
please the majority of people (as much as anyone can be "pleased" at
having to pay for beer anyway!)

We have a standard mark up on all the beers which is applied across
the board... if it costs us... then its gonna cost the punters I'm
afraid.  However - as drinkers and CAMRA members we too draw the line
at having to pay £3.60 for Pedigree or £3.50 for a 4.9% mild... so we
have a method of smoothing out some of the more ridiculous pricing we
get.

Also bear in mind for change requirements we price in 20p bands.

We first look at ABV groupings one by one and see that there is a
general consensus of beers at for example 3.5% & 3.6% and if something
stands out as too high then we drop it a bit... and if something is
too low we say "bless you" to the brewer and up it a little.  We have
an extra column at the end of the sheet that shows us ups and downs in
pence.

Once we have done all 420 odd beers this way we then go through then
AGAIN, but this time by Bar and see if something stands out as an
"odd" price.  This is especially true on the brewery bars when in the
past (as an example) we had Youngs and Fullers side by side and one of
the Sales execs came up chuntering to the office wanting to know why
his beer was 20p more expensive than the other brewery... we showed
him what we were being charged and the mathematics behind the pricing
and said that if he wanted us to drop his prices he would have to do
something about his.... he did... we did and the punters got the
benefit of a lower price too.... everyones a winner!

Finally we go through it AGAIN... looking at the actual prices and
what beers are within these prices.  "Can we REALLY have a mild in the
same price band with a load of strong bitters..... "... " How many
beers have we got at £2.00".... "Whats the average price of a pint"
and so on....

It takes us between 3 & 4 hours to do.

For the record this year we had
9 beers at £2.00
10 beers at £2.20
53 beers at £2.40
75 beers at £2.60
130 beers at £2.80
76 beers at £3.00
39 beers at £3.20
24 beers at £3.40
9 beers at £3.60
1 beer at £3.80
8 beers at more than £4.00 which had an AVERAGE strength of 7.6% and 2
of these were 9%!!

The EXACT unrounded average price of a pint was £2.83 which we rounded
down to £2.80
The up or downs list at the end of all this shenanigans was just
0.01p!
The average strength of beer was 4.4%
The average kil COST price plus VAT to us went up £15.33 to us this
year and is £38.55 more than 2006... adding a good 30p on the price of
a pint (we generally work on 130 pints per kil to allow for wastage)

On the Sunday prior to the festival I was drinking at 3.0% mild in a
pub in London at £2.80 per pint... that same beer at the festival was
£2.60

Oh and I'm from Keighley, Yorkshire... and my local pint price is
about £2.20 for Landlord these days... but I bet most Londoners don't
balk at paying £3.00 a pint for it do they!

Denny
Stock Control



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