Greene King and Pub is The Hub are toasting the success of their long-standing partnership as the total donated by the pub company and brewer reaches the £200,000 milestone and Pub is The Hub has helped more than 600 pubs extend their community services.
The country’s leading pub company and brewer has been a supporter of Pub is The Hub since it was formed in 2001.
Pub is The Hub, the not-for-profit organisation, helps pubs to diversify and provide essential local services and activities. This can include a range of diversification projects such as village stores, community cafes, allotments, libraries, play areas as well as supporting activities that tackle the issues of social isolation and loneliness.
Greene King’s CEO Nick Mackenzie and Pub is The Hub chief executive John Longden raised a glass to mark this year’s £25,000 donation and celebrate the 22-year support at Greene King’s The Greene Man pub in London.
Greene King’s long-standing funding has helped support Pub is The Hub’s regional advisors who work with licensees throughout the country. It has also boosted Pub is The Hub’s Community Services Fund which started in 2013, that can offer small grants to licensees wanting to offer additional community services at their pub. Over 200 pubs have benefitted from this support.
Nick said: “This is an industry which is all about people – its teams and its customers. Our support of Pub is The Hub is a great example of how when people work together, things happen for the better. Pub is The Hub can bring ideas to reality by working with local licensees to help them add extra value to their community services. This sort of working partnership makes a real difference.”
John added: “We are so grateful to Greene King and its people for their long-term support since we were established, which has helped both our regional advisors’ work, and other support activities and projects.
“As a not-for-profit organisation we do not receive any long-term funding so commitments like this enable us to continue our support for resilient licensees and their pubs. This enables them to work with their communities to help create projects which can provide much needed hubs for local services or activities in the future.”
A Pub is The Hub success story is The George in Bethersden, Kent. It has opened a new community café which is helping to bring local people together. It provides an opportunity for people living alone, mothers and toddlers, families, and groups to meet and socialise in a relaxed environment and welcoming space.
It has been bringing new customers into the pub as well as reconnecting the village as a whole, and helping people locally to overcome loneliness and isolation.
While publican Kerry Wolfe of The Gamekeeper in Woodlands, near Southampton, opened a new children’s play area to help entertain local children, and support their physical and mental health through exercise, thanks to support from Pub is The Hub.
She realised there was a need for this vital local service as there are few activities for younger children to do in the village and a large number of families in the area.
Inspired by The Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, Pub is The Hub was formed in 2001 to facilitate community projects in pubs. www.pubisthehub.org.uk
ENDS
About Greene King:
Greene King is the country’s leading pub company and brewer with c.2,600 pubs, restaurants and hotels across England, Wales and Scotland.
At Greene King we are passionate about delivering our purpose to ‘pour happiness into lives’. That’s for our customers, our team, our pub partners, our suppliers and the communities in which we live, operate and serve. Founded in 1799 with offices in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk and Burton on Trent in Staffordshire we employ around 39,000 people across the group with four divisions: Greene King pubs, Destination Brands, Partnership and Ventures, and Brewing & Brands.
- Greene King pubs are located where people and communities come together; pubs enjoyed in cities, towns and villages throughout the country
- Destination Brands is a mixture of food and drink-led brands including Hungry Horse, Farmhouse Inns, Chef & Brewer, Wacky Warehouse, and Pub & Carvery, Pub & Dining and Pub & Grill
- Partnerships & Ventures includes Pub Partners, which runs our tenanted and leased pubs business and Hive Franchise pubs, and our Ventures Brands which is made up of Metropolitan Pub Company, Hickory’s, Hotels Group and Crafted Pubs
Brewing & Brands covers the brewing sides of the business. Quality ales are brewed at the Westgate brewery in Bury St Edmunds and the Belhaven Brewery in Dunbar. Our industry-leading portfolio includes Greene King IPA, Old Speckled Hen, Abbot Ale, Ice Breaker and Belhaven Best and our premium beers, Level Head and Flint Eye, brewed for the modern-day drinker.
About Pub is The Hub
Pub is The Hub is a not-for-profit organisation, which offers independent specialist advice to publicans on rural services diversification or the options for the community ownership of pubs, so they can all provide viable local services at the heart of their community.
With a proven track record of rural project development and delivery over the last 22 years, Pub is The Hub has worked with great publicans to open shops, libraries, cafes, community cinemas, allotments, play areas and much more. Since 2013, the organisation has also been able to offer small grants through its Community Services Fund.
Pub is The Hub has helped over 600 pubs diversify, with almost 200 of these benefitting from help through the Community Services Fund.
Building on its community services work, in 2018 Pub is The Hub conceived its ‘Join Inn – Last Orders for Loneliness’ campaign. ‘Join Inn’, specifically looks to support publicans and their communities to become better connected, helping local people feel less isolated and, in the process helping to alleviate loneliness.
Website: www.pubisthehub.org.uk
Twitter: @PubistheHub_uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pubisthehub
Contact: Greene King Press Office, PressOffice@greeneking.co.uk
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