Punch Taverns is reporting a record breaking response to its award winning Profit Through Quality (PTQ) training course.

Pub company Punch has held 68 PTQ events across the country since the course was launched in April 2005 as a way of helping licensees boost their business performance through improved retail standards.

Around 20 per cent of the Punch estate has attended, which equates to 1,581 pubs, 2,787 individual delegates and an amazing 20,000 training hours.

PTQ courses are staged at major sporting venues throughout the company’s various operational regions, including Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, Elland Road and Brands Hatch.

But the record breaking event took place at Villa Park in Birmingham, home of Aston Villa, where 152 delegates attended a single PTQ session.

Kiernan Lynch, Punch’s retail standards operations manager, said: “We are training retailers on an unprecedented scale and delivering a clear message that today’s pub customers expect all round quality.  This includes the product they are drinking or eating, the pub environment and level of service received.

“PTQ is the sort of course all publicans should take time to attend and consider extending the opportunity to managers and bar staff. 

“We can demonstrate how much profit is potentially being lost through poor retail standards as well as the positive impact effective merchandising and even basic product knowledge can have on the bottom line.”

PTQ was awarded the 2005 National Innkeeping Training Award (NITA) for Innovation in Training by the British Institute of Innkeeping.  The course is delivered by Punch personnel alongside experts from drinks company Diageo.

Content includes perfecting the draught dispense, opportunities from wine sales, effective merchandising, cutting down on product wastage, serving quality spirits and mixers and responsible pub retailing.

Punch retailer and PTQ attendee Alison Wittwer, who runs the Royal Oak in Exminster, Devon, with husband Chris, said: “The name of the course said it all for me and I was hopeful I could pick up a number of ideas for building trade.

“I wasn’t disappointed.  The delivery was fantastic and all the more meaningful because it came from people with actual trade experience who have faced the same challenges as the group.”

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For further information please contact Nick Trueman or Jo Mathers at Seal Communications on 0121 200 0780.