What's a 'tied' agreement?

This is another question we get asked a lot! We see comments on our social posts from people who don’t seem to understand what it means to be ‘tied’ and also don't understand that this is not a negative thing - it actually has many positive attributes for the business owner.

So, as an outline, many pub tenancy agreements are a ‘full tie’ which means that the pub company will ask you to purchase all products including beers, cider, wines, spirits and all other drinks from them.

The purpose of a tied agreement is normally so that the pub company can offer competitive rent and other support services, which they can then recoup part of the cost through the sale of beers and other drinks.

Some pub companies do offer a ‘partial tie’ agreement which gives you more freedom to purchase products from other breweries and suppliers too.

Here at Everards, we are more flexible in our approach. Our pubs are run as independent tenanted businesses, so whilst we do ask that you purchase all beers and ciders from us, we work with all the big suppliers and many local ones to ensure that you have a full and interesting range to choose from. You’ll have access to all the mainstream brands you’d expect. We don’t even restrict choice around ale – whilst we want our pubs to be proud stockists of our beers, we also offer some great beers from local brewing friends too.

So, working with Everards means that you’ll be able to offer big brands but have a lot of exclusivities for your customers too – we only brew our own beers for our pubs and key partners such as the Leicester Tigers. Even our minikegs, bottles and cans are not going to be found in a supermarket – again we sell these exclusively through our own channels.

You have some items which you can buy anywhere – non-obligated- such as wines, spirits and soft drinks. However, we’re delighted that many business owners choose to purchase these from us also, as we work hard to offer a great range at a great price.

Learn more about the Everards partial tie, which we refer to as our ‘supplier agreement’.