Brechin publican calls time on trade

A BRECHIN pub owner is calling time on his 26-year trade career – the second time he’s attempted to retire.

Bob Stack, who has run the Brechin Arms with wife Dizzie for the past 12 years, opened his first pub in the Angus town – the Dalhousie Bar – in 1986.
After six years at the helm, the couple sold up and took a ‘year out’ before relocating to the south west of Scotland, buying the Buccleuch & Queensberry Hotel in Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. Ten years later, Bob ‘retired’ and he and Dizzie took a well-earned holiday before moving to Dundee.
But Bob said he became “bored” after a few weeks.
“I’m a people person, a story-teller,” he told SLTN.
“Working in pubs I was used to having people around all the time so I did get bored.”
A visit to friends in Brechin changed all that.
He spotted the leasehold for the Brechin Arms was available and jumped at the chance to acquire the pub, which is owned by a private landlord, and return to the town in which his licensed trade career began.
“We were only going to lease it for a year or two – but we’ve been here for 12 years,” he said.
Now Bob said he’s definitely retiring – and he and Dizzie are planning more holidays.
“I spend far too much time in the pub so it’s time to stop and let someone else take over,” he added. “There have been big changes in the trade, from the smoking ban to cheap alcohol in supermarkets and the amount of legislation, which I think is crippling the trade.
“We’ve been very fortunate because we’ve got a busy pub.”