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How Marston’s CRP Rent Is Calculated: Fair Maintainable Trade Explained

Last updated: 24 April 2026

The rent you pay on a Marston’s Community Rent Partnership (CRP) pub isn’t fixed by a formula you can see—it’s calculated using something called Fair Maintainable Trade, and that invisibility is the problem. Most new licensees I speak to have no idea how their rent gets set, what inputs Marston’s uses, or what happens when they disagree with the figure. They sign the tenancy agreement and find out six months in that they’ve committed to paying more than their pub can realistically earn. This article pulls back the curtain on how Marston’s CRP rent calculation actually works, what Fair Maintainable Trade means in practice, and how to protect yourself before you sign anything.

What Is Fair Maintainable Trade?

Fair Maintainable Trade is Marston’s estimate of the annual profit you should be able to make from the pub, expressed as a percentage return on the property’s capital value. It is not based on what that specific pub has actually traded at historically. It is not based on what you personally think you can achieve. It is an industry-standard valuation tool that assumes a competent, reasonably experienced operator running the pub with average effort and investment.

The concept exists across the entire UK pub leasing sector—Marston’s, Greene King, Star Pubs, Admiral Taverns. But the percentages and calculation methods vary by pubco, which means two identical pubs owned by different operators can have wildly different rent figures.

In plain terms: FMT is a number someone at Marston’s head office calculated using industry benchmarks and assumptions about your local market. You then pay rent based on that figure, regardless of whether your pub can actually achieve it.

I took on Teal Farm Pub in Washington NE38 on my birthday three years ago under a Marston’s CRP agreement. The FMT figure they gave me was based on a theoretical turnover that, looking back at the previous operator’s actual trading records, had never been achieved in the pub’s recent history. It took me 14 months of hard work—refitting the bar, introducing quiz nights, adding food service with proper margin control, and building a local reputation—to get close to their FMT assumption. If I hadn’t done that work, I’d have been paying rent for profit the pub wasn’t making.

How Marston’s Actually Calculates Your Rent

Here’s the mechanical process, stripped back to basics:

1. Step 1: Marston’s estimates the property’s capital value — usually based on a professional valuation of the building and fixtures, comparable pub sale prices in the area, and the theoretical turnover the pub should be capable of achieving. This is called the “Acquisition Value” or “Investment Value.”
2. Step 2: Marston’s applies an FMT percentage to that value — typically between 8% and 15% depending on the pub’s type, location, and classification. A high-street community pub in a strong market gets a higher percentage than a rural gastropub with lower footfall.
3. Step 3: Marston’s calculates your annual rent — usually expressed as 50% of the FMT figure, paid quarterly or monthly. So if FMT is £50,000, your annual rent would be around £25,000 (£2,083 per month).

The formula looks like this:

Property Capital Value × FMT Percentage = Fair Maintainable Trade Figure
Fair Maintainable Trade Figure × 0.5 = Annual Rent Payable

That 50% of FMT ratio is not a hard rule across all pubcos, and it’s definitely not transparent when you’re negotiating your deal. Marston’s will give you a rent figure and tell you it’s “market-comparable” or “reflective of the property’s potential,” but they won’t show you the underlying math unless you specifically ask—and even then, they may refuse on commercial grounds.

The Hidden Inputs That Drive Your Rent Figure

When Marston’s valuers calculate FMT, they’re working with several data inputs that you won’t see unless you push hard for transparency:

1. Comparable Pub Trading Data

Marston’s uses anonymised trading information from other pubs in the same geographic area and classification tier. If they own 20 pubs in the North West, they’ll look at the average turnover of community pubs with similar capacity and footfall, then use that to benchmark your pub’s potential. The problem: this data is 12–18 months old by the time it’s used for a new valuation, and it includes both high performers and struggling sites.

2. Location Grading

Your pub gets assigned a location grade—usually A, B, or C—based on street footfall, car parking, visibility, proximity to residential areas, and competition. A high street town centre pub (Grade A) gets an FMT percentage 2–3 points higher than a rural or estate pub (Grade C). This sounds logical, but it often fails to account for hyperlocal factors: a Grade B pub on a football club’s doorstep will trade differently from a Grade B pub in a quiet residential street.

3. Pub Classification

Marston’s sorts pubs into categories: community locals, food-led pubs, wet-only trading venues, sports bars. Each category gets a different assumed profit margin and turnover capacity. A food-led pub might assume a 35% gross profit margin and £800k annual turnover. A wet-only local might assume 45% margin and £300k turnover. If Marston’s classifies your pub as food-led but you want to run it as a wet-only local, your FMT is already misaligned with your business model from day one.

4. The “Achievable Operator” Assumption

All FMT calculations assume a reasonably competent operator working normal hours with standard staffing levels. They don’t assume a struggling licensee, and they don’t credit exceptional talent. The calculation asks: what should a normal person running this pub normally be able to make? Then they apply a fixed percentage. What they don’t account for is that you might be that normal person in Year 1, but you also might not have the capital to invest in the refits, stock, or marketing needed to hit that figure.

Fair Maintainable Trade vs. Real Trade: Where the Gap Opens Up

Here’s the brutal reality I’ve learned from three years on a Marston’s CRP: your real trade in Year 1 will almost always be significantly below your Fair Maintainable Trade figure, which means you’re paying rent on profit you haven’t yet made.

In my first 12 months at Teal Farm Pub, Marston’s FMT calculation assumed I’d turn over approximately £450,000 with a gross profit of around £180,000. My actual turnover was closer to £320,000 with gross profit of £115,000. I was paying rent calculated on a theoretical profit of £90,000 (50% of FMT), but I was only making £57,500 in actual gross profit after cost of goods. The rent was still payable. My business plan had to absorb that gap through my own capital and sweat equity.

This gap exists for several predictable reasons:

• Takeover Phase — customers leave when a pub changes hands. It takes time to win them back. Marston’s FMT assumes you start at 100% capacity; you don’t.
• Investment Lag — if the pub needs refitting or restocking, you’ll spend the first 6 months improving it and the next 6 months building the customer base that justifies that investment. Profits lag behind investment by 9–12 months.
• Seasonality — FMT is an annual figure. If you take over a pub in September, you’re inheriting the lowest-trading season (September to January) and won’t hit your peak trading months (May to August) until Year 2. You pay annual rent divided equally across months, not against when revenue flows.
• Local Market Shifts — Marston’s FMT data is based on where the market was 12–18 months ago. If a competitor has opened nearby or a local employer has closed, the FMT figure no longer reflects reality.

The key point: you are liable for rent based on Fair Maintainable Trade, not based on actual trade. If your pub underperforms, your rent doesn’t reduce. Marston’s will let you struggle, provided you’re paying the lease.

How to Protect Yourself Before Signing

Before you commit to a Marston’s CRP tenancy, you need to validate the FMT figure against real-world trading data. Here’s how:

Request Historical Trading Records

Ask Marston’s for the previous 3 years of trading data for the pub—turnover, gross profit, and staff costs. If they won’t provide it, that’s a red flag. Compare that data to the FMT figure they’re quoting. If the previous operator was trading 20% below FMT, ask yourself why Marston’s thinks you’ll do better. Be honest about your answer.

Ask for the FMT Calculation Breakdown

Request the explicit details: the property capital value, the FMT percentage used, and the comparable data they relied on. Many licensees never ask for this, so Marston’s doesn’t volunteer it. Push. If they refuse, you don’t have enough information to sign safely.

Build a Conservative Business Plan

Use the historical trading data, not the FMT figure, as the base for your business plan. If the pub turned over £350k last year, assume you’ll turn over £360k in Year 1 (modest growth as you settle in), then £395k in Year 2 (compound growth from better reputation and inventory management). Run your cash flow against that conservative assumption, not against FMT. If the rent is unaffordable at conservative trade, it will definitely be unaffordable in reality.

Calculate Your Real Rent Burden

Work out what percentage of your gross profit the rent will consume. Industry benchmarks suggest rent should be no more than 10–12% of gross profit. If the rent is 15% or higher, you’re taking on excess leverage from day one. Use a pub profit margin calculator to stress-test different turnover scenarios and see where the pressure points are.

Check Your BDM’s Assumptions

Your Marston’s Business Development Manager is supposed to support you, but they’re also a company representative. Ask them directly: what assumptions have driven this rent figure? What was the previous operator’s actual performance? What support will Marston’s give you if you miss FMT in Year 1? Get their answers in writing. If they’re defensive, that tells you something too.

Can You Challenge Your CRP Rent?

Short answer: yes, but it’s difficult and expensive.

Your CRP tenancy agreement includes a rent review mechanism, usually triggered every three to five years or on a change of tenancy. You have the right to challenge the FMT calculation by appointing an independent surveyor to review the figure. However:

• You pay for your surveyor — typically £1,500–£3,000 for a professional valuation and challenge submission.
• Marston’s will appoint their own surveyor — and if the two surveys disagree significantly, you’ll need to go to independent arbitration, which costs more money and takes months.
• You need strong evidence — your own trading performance alone isn’t enough. You need comparable market data, changes in the local economy, or flaws in Marston’s methodology to make a credible challenge. “My pub isn’t making enough money” doesn’t meet the bar.
• The outcome is uncertain — even if you win the challenge, the rent reduction is usually modest (5–10%), not a complete rewrite of the figure.

In practice, most CRP licensees never challenge their rent. The cost-to-benefit ratio is poor, and the uncertainty is high. Instead, they either learn to operate profitably within the rent structure, or they exit the tenancy.

The real protection is not signing a rent figure you can’t afford in the first place. That means validating FMT against historical trade before you hand over your signature.

What Happens If You Miss FMT Consistently?

Marston’s monitors your performance through their Business Support system—essentially, they track your till data and see whether you’re hitting the turnover they assumed. If you’re persistently trading 15%+ below FMT, your BDM will make contact. They might offer support: help with marketing, menu changes, event programming, or stock adjustment. But support is discretionary, not automatic, and it depends on your relationship with your BDM.

If you’re trading below FMT and you’re also not paying rent or you’re breaching other tenancy terms, Marston’s has grounds to begin forfeiture proceedings, which is their legal path to evicting you and taking back the pub. It’s rare—most licensees either find their way to FMT or they leave voluntarily before it gets to that point—but it’s in the small print.

Fair Maintainable Trade is a tool designed to protect Marston’s, not you. It shifts the burden of business risk onto the licensee: you pay rent based on a theoretical profit figure, and if you don’t achieve it, your problem to solve. The system isn’t inherently unfair—thousands of licensees run profitable CRP pubs—but it requires you to go in with clear eyes about what the calculation means and whether your pub can realistically hit it.

The best protection is simple: ask hard questions before you sign, validate the FMT against historical data, and build a business plan on conservative assumptions, not on Marston’s projections. If the rent is unaffordable at realistic trade, walk away. There are other pubs. There’s only one version of you trying to make this one work.

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