Michael Turner, the chairman of brewer Fuller Smith & Turner, has lashed out at "short-term investors" who have been targeting other asset-rich pub groups and pressuring them to sell off or spin out their freehold properties.
In particular, he attacked property investor Robert Tchenguiz, who controls 27% of larger pub group Mitchells & Butlers and, after years of battling, has won two seats in the boardroom. Tchenguiz last month finally persuaded management to draw up plans to separate out the properties in a tax-efficient real estate investment trust (Reit).
"We cannot see how anything that is happening with reits there [at M&B] can be described as 'long-term'. I don't think it will be good for the industry and I don't think it will be good for customers," said Turner.
Several other pub groups are also looking at stripping out their property assets into a reit, with Enterprise Inns having secured technical approval to do so from Revenue & Customs.
Fullers finance director James Douglas said: "We can only watch in bemusement as others explore separation [of their real estate assets]." Turner said: "We have always said it is in the interests of shareholders to own the freeholds wherever possible." Fullers has 363 pubs, two-thirds of them tenanted, with 90% freehold ownership.
The Fullers chairman said M&B, if stripped of its property, would "by definition leave an operating company that will be tied into high street leases and I think everybody is aware of what has happened to that kind of business - the best example is Laurel Pub Company."
Laurel, which includes the Yates and Slug & Lettuce chains also owned by Tchenguiz, collapsed in March after failing to find a buyer for about 90 loss-making bars within the 330-strong group.
Twelve months ago, weeks before the credit crunch spread to the UK, Turner said: "Sadly, we live in a world made up of short-term interests. It is quite easy to rape any business for short-term gain these days." Yesterday he said his comments had been vindicated.
Turner said his company's focus on conservative borrowings and its determination not to sell off freehold pub assets had been vindicated as heavily indebted rivals and competitors labouring under onerous leases struggled amid the toughest trading environment in working memory.
He contrasted the long-term view taken by the three founding families who control the majority of Fullers' A and C shares and the approach taken by Tchenguiz and his supporters at M&B.
Turner also criticised lager price promotions in supermarkets. "To use loss-leading or low-cost alcohol sales as a traffic builder in a store cannot be described as responsible retailing," he said.
He said lager brands, particularly InBev's Stella Artois, faced a "big challenge" to recover their image and pricing. "Those brands that are heavily discounted in supermarkets but then want to be premium in pubs have a serious problem."
Reporting underlying pretax profits up 4% at £23m, Fullers yesterday warned commodity prices were continuing to drive up the cost of food and beer.