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ASH Daily News for 29 November 2006

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ASH Daily News
 
29 November 2006
 
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HEADLINES
 
Mitchells and Butlers see smoking ban profits
 
London landlords back smoking law
 
New asthma assessment clinical tool
 
Anti-smoking advocate Allen Carr dies
 
FULL TEXT
 
Mitchells and Butlers see smoking ban profits
 
Pub food helped boost full-year profits by over 10 percent at Mitchells & Butlers, which said its larger, food-based pubs would benefit from Scotland's ban on smoking.
 
Mitchells, which owns the All Bar One and Harvester chains of pub restaurants, said on Wednesday food sales had increased 7.3 percent in the year ended September 30, compared to an average of 4 percent at UK restaurants. Drink sales rose by 3.2 percent.
 
Profit before tax was 208 million pounds, compared with 189 million a year earlier.
 
Analysts at Merrill Lynch said: "While results are in-line, in our view there remains plenty of longer-term earnings per share upside through the Whitbread conversions and the benefits of a smoking ban on Mitchells & Butlers' increasingly food-driven pub model."
 
In Scotland, where smoking in pubs and restaurants was banned in March, food sales grew 7 percent in the first seven weeks of the new financial year, offsetting a 2 percent decline in drink sales. Overall like-for-like sales were ahead by 1.1 percent. It said its smaller, drinks-focused pubs were likely to suffer from the smoking ban.
 
England and Wales are expected to ban smoking in pubs and restaurants in mid-2007.
 
Chief Executive Tim Clarke told a conference call Mitchells had already banned smoking in more than 200 of its pub restaurants in England and Wales, with an impact of less than 1 percent on their rate of sales growth.
 
Mitchells said group sales had grown strongly in the seven weeks to November 18, with like-for-like sales 4.5 percent ahead of last year.
 
The company said it had reopened 25 of the Whitbread pubs under its pub-restaurant brands such as Harvester, Vintage Inns and Toby Carvery. It expects to have 50 reopened under its brands by Christmas and around 100 by Easter.
 
Source: Reuters, 29 November 2006
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/yy3sfo
 
 
London landlords back smoking law
 
Almost two thirds of pub landlords in central London back the smoking ban coming into force next summer.
 
Ninety per cent of restaurateurs and 50 per cent of nightclub owners also support the measure, according to the London Chamber of Commerce.
 
The figures reflect a turnaround by publicans, most of whom had been opposed to the ban on the grounds that it would cost them business.
 
Chamber chief executive Colin Stanbridge said customers had driven the change of opinion, adding: "The days of smoky bars are on their way out, by popular demand."
 
Simon Emeny, managing director of Fullers Inns, which has 165 pubs in the London area, said: "We have been preparing for the ban for the past two to three years.
 
"We felt it was inevitable from the moment it happened in Ireland. We are approaching the ban with enthusiasm - it could be entirely good news for pubs by opening up the market to a whole new customerbase.”
 
Mark Hastings of the British Beer and Pub Association said: "There has been a substantial shift in opinion, with people in the industry recognising that a ban was definitely coming, so it was best they got on with it rather than fight."
 
The chamber said 34 per cent of publicans opposed to the ban feared it would damage their businesses. Smokers make up about a quarter of the population but between 40 and 60 per cent of pub-goers.
 
Simon Clark, director of tobacco industry mouthpiece and pressure group, FOREST, said: "The sad thing is that if all these people running pubs and restaurants are now saying yes to the ban, why didn’t they ban smoking two or three years ago?”
 
Source: Daily Mail, 29 November 2006
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/yezu9w
 
 
New asthma assessment clinical tool
 
A new clinical tool to help doctors identify asthma patients most likely to need hospital treatment could improve the care of patients and reduce costs, researchers said on Tuesday.
 
The TENOR Risk Score determines the most difficult-to-treat cases by assessing factors such as the patient's age, weight, smoking status, medical history, medications and breathing and exercise tests.
 
In a three-year study published in the European Respiratory Journal, patients with the highest score were 10 times more likely to need emergency treatment or be admitted to hospital than other asthma patients.
 
Miller and scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, Harvard Medical School in Boston and the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver collected information and assigned scores ranging from 0-18 to nearly 2,821 patients.
 
Those with a moderate risk score of 5-7 points had a 3.5-fold higher risk of needing hospital treatment. A score of 8 points or more reflected a 12-fold higher risk compared with patients with a low score of 0-4.
 
"The ability to predict clinical events is critical for patients, healthcare providers and health systems," said Miller.
 
Source: Reuters, 29 November 2006
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/y9m9s3
 
 
Anti-smoking advocate Allen Carr dies
 
Allen Carr has died of lung cancer at the age of 72.
 
Mr Carr was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in the summer. He was a heavy smoker with a 100-a-day habit before giving up over 20 years ago and making a name for himself helping others do the same.
 
But friends say that the years he spent curing smokers in smoke-filled sessions at his clinics contributed to the illness.
 
Mr Carr once said: "Given that I am informed that I have cured at least 10 million smokers on a conservative estimation, even if that is the case, it's a price worth paying."
 
He also said: "Since I smoked my final cigarette, 23 years ago, I have been the happiest man in the world. I still feel the same way today."
 
A spokesman said when the diagnosis was made: "He is certain that had he not quit, he would have been dead 20 years ago."
 
Mr Carr died at his home near Malaga in Spain and his family were with him, a spokeswoman said.
 
Source: Ananova, Channel4.com, 29 November 2006
Article link: (A) http://tinyurl.com/y9gra9



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