Editing Pub chain (section)

==History==
Pub chains are an evolution of the [[tied house]] system.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brandwood |first1=Geoffrey K. |last2=Davison |first2=Andrew |last3=Slaughter |first3=Michael |title=Licensed to Sell: The History and Heritage of the Public House |date=2004 |publisher=English Heritage |isbn=978-1-85074-906-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJogAQAAIAAJ&q=tied+inns+taverns+medieval+-wikipedia |language=en}}</ref> During the latter half of the nineteenth century increased competition between breweries led many of them to buy up local pubs in an attempt to secure markets for their products. Although tied houses had existed in some cities since the seventeenth century, this period has come to be known as the birth of the tied house system. As well as securing markets for their own products, this system provided an efficient [[supply chain]] directly from the brewery to the pub; cutting costs for breweries and allowing complete and uninterrupted control over quality.

Most tied houses today are owned by non-brewing pub chains, known as ''pubco's''. A key difference between this, and the traditional tied house system, is that pubco's align themselves with specific brewers in order to obtain big discounts; reducing profits for breweries and restricting their ability to control the quality of the end product.