When I started with the brewery as a trainee pub manager in 1989, the training given was absolutely first class and very thorough.
My missus and I did 8 weeks in-house training in a Sams pub, living there as a management couple with the mentors. We undertook various "tests" during these 8 weeks which had to satisfy not only the mentors but the senior training officer who would drop in randomly to check our progress.
We then were housed in the flats at Tadcaster for a fortnight to learn all the paperwork and legal stuff, Health & Safety, Fire Training, Cellar Management, basic first aid , profit margins on catering, food hygeine etc.
During our continued employment with the company, one of us, (which was usually me) had to attend on going training and refresher courses either at the brewery or a nominated venue. I have more certificates than soft Mick.
We also attended meetings which were well organised and in the main beneficial to our continued success in the public house enviroment.
To be honest, if you had been trained by Samuel Smiths, you had the respected credentials to vertually walk into any other brewery to apply for a job should you wish to do so.
In the 80s and 90s, the company was highly respected by its employees. It was a company for whom it was a pleasure to work for.
The change of attitudes by this family run business has seen downturns in trade, especially the food side of the business at a phenominal rate.
Yes, the general brewing trade has seen a downturn in trade over the years, but as long term managers will verify, Sams downturn has been self inflicted by Mr. Smith himself with strange decisions that only he knows why they have been made.
Some of those decisions were scything of staff hours, removal of music and televisions (forget sky), turning a blind eye to pubs desperately in need of decoration/repairs/refurbishment, refusal to pay warranted bonuses decent wages etc to employees, removal of other products like Guiness, Cider, alcopops etc. thus limiting choice to other potential customers.
Most of this was done to keep beer prices down to the current low level. Yes that's fantastic for the person on the other side of the bar, but I am sure that another 10p to 20p per pint would still be acceptable and still be well below the oppositions prices to be able to fund those debatable decisions mentioned above.
