As their Members know, Pelican takes their service levels very seriously, and are pleased to offer excellent value for money coupled with above and beyond customer service.

For this reason Pelican is pleased and proud to partner with companies to which they can extend their benefits, and the Welsh brewing and pub chain, Brains, is one such partner.

Brains have over 250 managed and tenanted pubs across Wales, all of which can take advantage of the savings on food purchasing, fuel, non food consumables and equipment that Pelican have secured with their many suppliers, as well as their Central Billing payment service, and the Cash Back bonus, that comes with it, at the end of the year.

Joy Davies is landlady at Brains' Rose & Crown in Abertridwr, and she's been utilising Pelican for her purchasing. She told us why.

"Brains pay our membership fees to Pelican which enables us to use the service at no cost to ourselves. I was paying the charges to our previous buying company, so straight away that's saving me £500 a year. As tenants we have a choice over which suppliers we use, but it made sense to me to switch and save that cost.

"Pelican switched over all our accounts and they were brilliant when it was being set up. It went very smoothly and I've never had any problems with it since - it's all been absolutely fine. When I first joined they did a price benchmarking exercise which showed us all the areas where we can make savings. For instance I use LPG from Calor and I get a saving of £1,200 or more a year buying through Pelican; we also get savings from Brakes.

"Now that we're with Pelican I really appreciate the levels of service they offer like Central Billing payment service. With our previous supplier it was cash on delivery, which meant I always had to be here, and that's a bit of a nuisance. You'd never know what time of day they were going to come so you'd have to be available the whole day. Sometimes they might be a bit awkward and if I wasn't here, they might not leave the delivery. Now with Central Billing there isn't a problem. Anyone can be here to receive the delivery, and I get the statements from Pelican to check off and make sure it's all there. And it's handy with accounting too because I just get the one bill instead of dozens of little ones I was having to deal with before, it's been really good.

"By using Pelican's Central Billing payment system we also receive a Cash Back at the end of the year, and that's wonderful. I like to accumulate it and then hopefully it will be a larger amount and I might be able to buy a piece of equipment or something we need.

"We're only a very small establishment, so any savings we get makes a big difference. I've been really happy with Pelican and what they do for us."

"When I first joined they did a benchmarking process which showed us all the areas where we can make savings."

Joy Davies - Landlady
Brains' Rose & Crown
Abertridwr