True to type?

It doesn't take a lot to distract me from work - particularly on a miserable Monday morning - so I chuckled when I read the heading "SHATfesbury [my caps] to acquire £10.25m Enterprise package".
Morning Advertiser, 21st Feb 2011 Wonder how long it will be before their typographers get it right (or did they)?

Enterprise culture at Pubco giant?

In a story which demonstrates the bizarre nature of current Pubco operations, an  Enterprise lessee has bought, at auction, the freehold of the pub he rents - and now receives income on - from Enterprise.
Morning Advertiser, 17th February 2011.
Even factoring in the barrellage kick-back the Pubco receives, it must appear to any sane person that so-called "sale-and-leaseback" is another junk-bond debacle waiting to happen when the sub-tenant pays substantially less than he receives from his tenant.

Any excuse for a ceilidh....

Planning early for St Paddy's day:
Morning Advertiser, 14th February 2011

The voice from Irish-America says:  "They have tried to make it into a week here - just what we need, more drunks p****ng in the streets....."

A tax or attacks on boozing at home?

Hands up if you think that piling more tax on off-licence booze is going to magically cure pre-loading and binge-drinking!

Morning Advertiser, 10th February 2011

 I, personally, couldn't disagree more! The complex issues of pre-loading and binge-drinking are social ills that will not be affected by price at all - in fact, as disposable income is diverted from other purchases, we may see different social ills growing. There is no quick fix and I am getting more and more irate at reading, without transparent empirical evidence, the words of "experts" whose jobs and little empires depend on making this sort of glib proposal.

When is a carvery not a carvery?

Hands up, anyone who has ever heard of a Curry Banquet Carvery?
Morning Advertiser, 9th February 2011

This is a masterclass in  how to fill a Press Release with a load of waffle. "We're offering a carvery but we're not turning into carvery venues....and, actually, the equipment is just a mobile bain-marie that we'll use for other purposes when it suits us!"

Root Beer - the ancestor of Kaliber?

About 20 years before Kaliber was invented, a schoolfriend of mine mentioned - we were about 10 at the time - that his mother was buying him some root beer. Beer? Now, admittedly, another friend was nicking cider  from the stockroom of his parents' off-licence and we'd go and get hammered among the gorse bushes on Grange Hill....But beer? I couldn't conceive, with the exception of ginger beer, of non-alcoholic beer.

This, from Everyday Goodness, sounds a really good (trade) deal:
Cases of 24 bottles, each bottle is 355 ml.
Offer price 24 x £0.72  = £ 20.74 including VAT per case.
10-30 cases, £10 for carriage .
>31 cases,  £free delivery.

Posters available for Point of Sales advertising.
www.everydaygoodness.net

A Rum Do

Malcolm Gosling, the 7th generation of the family-owned Goslings Rum brand will be back in Blighty and available for interviews on March 9-11th.  He has plenty of stories handed down from previous generations  as the Gosling’s family history actually begins in the UK dating back to 1806. London wine & spirits merchant James Gosling set out from England with £10,000 of cargo, aboard the chartered clipper Mercury with merchandise bound for the New World - America. The voyage was a difficult one. Ninety-one consecutive days of calm left the crew and passengers in dire straits and the charter of Mercury was fast running out. When they finally made port in Britain’s oldest colony St. Georges, Bermuda, Gosling decided to stay and set up shop on King's Parade, in December 1806. To this day the company remains the oldest surviving business in Bermuda and is still a family concern. The Goslings soon started producing rum which quickly became the nation’s favourite.

The much loved Dark n’ Stormy® cocktail is celebrated every year on National Bermuda Day, the 24th May, and this year Goslings  want to bring some of the Bermudian Spirit to Blighty to have some fun.  Originally created by the British Navy in Bermuda over 100 years ago, sailors added local Goslings Black Seal Rum to their own home-made ginger beer, to ‘spice’ it up. The drink took its name from the colour of a cloud that only a mad sailor would dare sail under.  Today the drink is trademarked and has fans all over the world. The rich, smooth, full-bodied taste of Goslings Black Seal Rum is nuanced with butterscotch, vanilla and caramel, complimented by the ginger beer, it creates an intoxicatingly spicy drink with a bit of a bite. You’ll find it served in bars and restaurants all over the island!
The Dark ‘n Stormy®, Goslings and Family Reserve Rum is becoming a staple on bar menus in the finest of establishments here in the UK too.

Creating a Dark ’n’ Stormy is a Breeze
The Dark ‘n Stormy®, is simple to make, yet refreshing to drink so we’re not surprising it’s becoming more and more popular with the British public at home.
Load a tall glass with ice cubes, pour in some ginger beer,  add a large measure of Goslings Black Seal Rum and prepare to be refreshed. If you’d like to get creative, run a lime wedge around the glass rim and drop in.
 
If you’d like to talk to Malcolm Gosling about his experiences as the 7th generation building the family business in an international brand, or simply want a guided tour of what the Bermudians like to do on National Bermuda Day (and how many Dark n Stormy’s they like to drink) then mailto:Sarah@lovedrinks.co.uk

*Gosling’s Black Seal and Dark ‘n Stormy are registered trademarks of Gosling’s Export (Bermuda) Limited, Hamilton, Bermuda