EXCLUSIVE: Heineken owned Star Pubs & Bars data breach. Is your site on the ‘toxic’ list?

In a data breach seen by The Publican’s Post, the database of Heineken owned Star Pubs & Bars full site list is revealed.

We have redacted certain sensitive information such as the names of Business Development Managers, and confirm no site specific information was included in the breach – such as any details relating to individual publicans.

However, what is interesting – is the categorisation of some of the sites as ‘toxic’. This is an interesting use of language for a pub company that claim to ‘love pubs’ – when in reality they have shown themselves unwilling to support some of their most vulnerable licensees through the Coronavirus pandemic.

We reported earlier on MRO (free of tie) sites that received no government grant, expected to repay 100% of the rental debt accrued during the closures. This will lead to business failures – from a global brewing giant that could easily afford to offer some support. It came as no surprise to us.

Insisting on their pound of flesh, they claim to have no interest in supporting such ‘commercial’ sites – but will fight tenants all the way to the High Court in a bid to impose stocking demands upon tenants who wish to be free of tie.

In a badly managed PR move, Star did announce that they would offer rental support to their tied sites – as long as tenants agreed to confidentiality, signed within 5 days and agreed to convert to the church of Heineken and swear their allegiance to Amstel, the god of beer. The last one was a joke of course, but one wonders sometimes whether such a cult exists within the company, given their fixation with stocking requirements.

Lawson Mountstevens, MD of Star Pubs & Bars has since apologised for the badly worded rental concession letters.

Within the site list (shown below in full), which was last updated in May 2019 (so may be slightly out of date now) the following sites are categorised as being ‘toxic’:

Arnold Ex-services Club, Arnold
Big John’s Star City
Breeze / Rat & Parrot Newport
Busaba Eathai
Carluccios Stratford
Coyote Ugly Cardiff
Demiros, Cardiff
Dragons Kiss Clifton
Flame Star City Birmingham
Haute Dolci Leicester
High Society / Elizabeth House
Idols Swansea
Livingstones Huddersfield
Locker Room Leicester
Long Island Iced Tea Star City
Noodle Nation Maidenhead
Oceana Bristol
Old Argyll Irvine
OMG Sheffield
Pleased to Meet You Newcastle
Woodheys Club Sale
Za Za Bazaar Bristol

Perhaps these sites should count themselves lucky – as with any luck, they may find themselves in the hands of a decent owner.

We imagine a number of publicans will now be begging Star Pubs & Bars to mark them as ‘toxic’ as well. Perhaps we should all send Lawson a Britney Spears album for Christmas…

Before you go… please sign our petition calling for Ei Group to offer equal support to their MRO tenants… Thanks 🙂