Greene King appoints Clair Preston-Beer as new managing director for Local Pubs division: Brewer and retailer Greene King has appointed Clair Preston-Beer to its executive board as the new managing director for the more than 600-strong Local Pubs division. Most recently Preston-Beer was managing director for Costa Coffee in the Middle East and Asia, responsible for driving significant expansion and growth in the region, and previously was the company’s chief operating officer for the UK where she was accountable for UK operations, property and business change across 1,100 outlets. Preston-Beer will take over the Local Pubs division from Dan Robinson, who has held the managing director role on an interim basis since it was created earlier this year. Robinson remains with Greene King and will join the property team in January once Preston-Beer has completed a handover and induction. This is the final executive board appointment following the restructure announced earlier in the year, with Maria Sebastian also joining as chief marketing officer in August. Preston-Beer will report directly to Greene King chief executive Nick Mackenzie, who said: “As we look ahead to 2021, I am confident the newly formed Local Pubs division will be well placed to take advantage of what we all hope will be a recovery for great British pubs, which play such an important role at the heart of the communities they serve so well. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dan Robinson for holding the reins so well over the past six months and for his contribution to the wider executive board over the past year.”

NTIA fears nightclubs will become extinct in UK culture: The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) has warned the end of 2020 will see the “extinction’ of nightclubs”, with no roadmap for reopening and growing financial pressures. Nightclubs have been closed since March and have been surviving on loans and furlough, but all of this will come to an abrupt end as many have run out of time, the NTIA said. Many business owners are now considering legal action as the government has systematically made their businesses unviable, and outside of furlough have presented only debt as an option to survive this period, the NTIA argued. G-A-Y owner Jeremy Joseph has already launched legal action against the government after ministers failed to provide evidence justifying the 10pm curfew. Pre-covid there were more than 1,400 nightclubs across the UK, but these numbers are reducing daily, the NTIA said. Chief executive Michael Kill said: “We are on the cusp of losing a cultural institution, the government has ignored the sector and failed to recognise its economic and cultural value. The club scene is fighting to survive, we want the children of today to have careers and opportunities within the sector, but also be able to experience an industry that is a huge part of British culture and heritage spanning decades. Nightclubs are continually excluded from many of funding provisions and fears are growing for their future as we have yet to see a roadmap or exit strategy which directly related to these types of businesses. We're also fighting against a tide of misconception, with key operators such as Deltic Group, Revolution Bars Group – some of the biggest late-night bar and nightclub owners in the country – in financial difficulty. The government needs to intervene. We need a roadmap or a direction of travel so businesses can plan financially and communicate with their workforce, and we need a solution for commercial rent, as many are already overburdened with debt.”