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The worst summer in more than two decades has left pub bosses reeling from a triple whammy of bad weather, the smoking ban and a spending slowdown.
Many are now predicting the death of the traditional “beer and fags” boozer, with only bigger bars with the space for dining rooms and outside smoking areas able to survive.
Big pub companies like Wolverhampton-based Marston’s had already seen which way the wind was blowing more than two years ago, pumping cash into restaurant areas at its outlers, and just this year sold off 300 pubs it felt were not “viable”.
At the same time Punch Taverns announced plans to sell 1,000 of its pubs because of fears of falling trade with the smoking ban.
Earlier this year CAMRA, the real ale campaigners, warned that up to 1,300 pubs nationwide had closed and were unlikely to open. At that stage more than 50 pubs a month were closing their doors for good.
Many of those were street corner “locals” that are now struggling even more after the worst summer the pub industry has seen in nearly 30 years. Rising mortgage rates have already made homeowners more careful with their pennies while this summer’s combination of the heavy rain and the ban on smoking has left some pubs and bars almost empty.
Drinks industry research is indicating big numbers of pub tenants are quitting the trade with reports that some pub companies are seeing one in five of their tenants depart – twice the normal rate.
The British Institute of Innkeeping has said its free legal helpline has received more than 4,000 calls over the summer, while industry surveys say the weather was almost solely to blame for a slump in pub sales figures.
Licensed trade research consultancy CGA Strategy, which monitors 14,000 venues, saw pub sales falling seven per cent in June and July, while monitoring specialist Nuclear Data, which studies sales in 3,000 pubs, said sales were down 6.7 per cent in July compared to a year ago.
Many of the big pub companies say they have not seen any rise in the number of tenants leaving, and Wolverhampton-based Marston’s Pub Company – with 1,750 tenants pubs nationwide – said it was “business as usual”.
But Pub Company managing director Stephen Oliver said many smaller pub companies had been finding it tough to support outlets hit by the floods and rain. “At one stage we had 100 pubs affected, but we were able to put packages of support in to help them,” said Mr Oliver.
“We still have five pubs shut for ‘drying out’ and repairs and the tenants are on a rent-free deal until they can trade again. It has been an awful summer and trading has been very tough, although it has started to improve in the last few weeks. But the fall in beer sales is just a continuation of a long-standing trend. That is why we have been investing £17 million in our pubs, improving their food service.
“The British pub is unique, but it is changing.”
* More reports and case studies in Thursday’s Express & Star.
23 Comments
I WORK IN THE BUSINESS IN SOME WAY OR ANOTHER,GREEDY BREWERYS COUNCIL TAX FUEL BILLS ETC WHAT CHANCE AS THE LANDLORDS GOT WITH IN TEN YEARS MOST PUBS WILL BE FOOD PLCES OR TURNED IN TO HOUSING ITS LOOKING A SAD DAY FOR THE BRITISH DRINKER.
I personally believe that it is ridulous that smoking has been banned from all inside areas. I agree witht he fact that non-smokers shouldnt have to inhale second hand smoke. However wouldnt it be a better i dead just to section part of a room, with a wall and door. Therefore the smokers would be separate from non-smokers but still able to relax and enjoy a drink in the warmth of a bar/pub. The bars/ pubs will then not loose so much custom, smokers will be happier and non-smokers will still be away from the second-hand smoke.
I’m not a smoker, but the smoking ban was way OTT.
We had the formula right in the days of old. Pubs should have a smoke room served only by a hatch off the bar. That way the staff don’t cop it and nor do the non-smoking drinkers. The Newhampton was a good example of how this worked.
But, as usual, it looks good on a politician’s (in this case the health secretary’s) CV to push through controversial legislation. To hell with everyone else.
BRING BACK THE OLD SMOKE ROOM
As a non smoker the ban was welcomed. However now that every body smokes outside it has turned the traditional beer garden, a place for young familys to enjoy a place to avoid. Cheaper to have friends round your house with cans and a bottle.
Pubs are the same as any other business and supply and demand is at the heart of the matter. As there are too many pubs chasing too few drinkers, pubs will close. If you want to keep your pub, go to it and drink in it, dont blame other variables for the demise of the great British Pub.
I went in a pub the other day,the first time since the ban and it stank of BO and wee.I wont be going again until this stupid government throws the stupid smoking ban out
Its the best thing to happen since sliced bread, i can sit down now, and enjoy a pint, without someone leaving their fag to burn out in the ashtray, what a stink that was, if smokers dont like it, stay out of pubs, what would they think if lit some old rope and sat by them in their space, very selfish people a lot of smokers are.
The problem is amrhappy1, that pubs are now emptier and inhabited by lonely old pious killjoys.
These people used to go to the library to read a free newspaper, now they enjoy half a mild in a smoke free atmosphere and will undoubtedly wonder what to do when pubs start closing down.
Can’t the non-smokers go outside when the smokers have a fag?
i enjoy going into pubs even more now that the ‘tyranny’ of smoking has ended. i am a big fan of traditional pubs and hope too many dont close down and down into estate agents
Food for thought for the smokers
A little boy goes into a shop with his Nan,
while they are waiting to be served the little lad who can just about read,
says to his Nan.
Nan! they won’t sell any of those fags up there one the shelf.
Nan says why not?
Well it says on the packet SMOKING KILLS
What gets me about this smoking ban is the total hypocrisy of the subject; this would never have happened 10 years back because the government was making too much money out of the tax on cigarettes, now they are losing the tax on cigarettes because people are bringing them in from abroad they don’t mind banning them, also they have found a new form of income, the motorist, they can bleed them dry for a good few years yet yet.
I am an ex smoker and don’t like smoking, but I still believe that smoking should be allowed in pubs, this is another hair brained scheme thought up by a government that it totally out of control and is desperate to give the impression that they are doing something for the people, yeeeeeeeee like they want to save the world by forcing up the tax on fuel to force motorist off the road.
If they are totally committed to not wanting to be associated with smoking then they can always prove it by not accepting the tax off cigarettes, or ban smoking completely, some chance, its like prostitution they don’t agree with it but are happy to accept the tax the industry makes.
Jim of Bearwood
As a publican it is good to see that non-smokers are also seeing the stupidity of this ban. We have plenty of outside space and a decent restaurant but it is the traditional street corner pub that is really suffering. Even more significant though is that fact that their customers are being denied the simple pleasures of a pint and a cigarette (or pipe) just in order to fulfil some middle class utopian ideal. The health fanatics are never going to go to the pub in any event but they seem to delight in destroying a community facility. Please all write to your MP as a matter of urgency and ask them to overturn this prohibition. It really is destroying lives and causing social friction.
I drink regularly (at least twice a month) at two long-established pubs in London. The Wenlock Arms(N1) and the Oakdale Arms(N4). Quite contrary to what has reoprtedly occurred in some other venues, the Oakdale has gone from strength to strength, and the Wenlock now often has standing room only on the weekends.
This is despite all the lousy weather this summer. All my friends who smoke have continued going to the pub, nip out for the odd fag when they need one, and have adapted to the ban (albeit grudgingly for some!) without mishap.
The Wenlock (a backstreet local) is a good case study - even smokers complained they could not breathe in the pub pre-ban, and the light-fittings often had thick haze round them (BEFORE my first pint!)
It’s cheaper to drink in town then it is in my local. I think the death knell was rung when the big breweries decided to offload local pubs and set up camp in the High Streets!!
I am also a non smoker but believe there is still a place for the old “Snug” (small confortable room for those too young to remember) in every pub where people can smoke their pipes & cigs and enjoy a pint in the warmth. I don’t think the canvas gazebo’s erected outside a lot of pubs or bus type shelters will offer much protection in the winter.
Just one message to Parliament:
Deregualtion, deregulation, deregulation.
people will use your pubs if they weren’t so expensive!
big chains survive because they are nice places to be. it’s got little to do with the smoking ban and more to do with comfort. Back street pubs are shabby run down holes.
notice the breweries are being very quiet about the smoking ban i think they are glad the decision was taken out of there hands
A few years down the line x staff with lung cancer would be queuing up to sew
The ‘big-brand’ pub I use was dead today. Possibly the football & rugby games were to blame and many stayed at home; but they used to fill the pub before the ban. The whingeing non-smokers who complained about the smokers don’t spend enough to justify their cause.
Perhaps pubs should be made ’smoking only’ because they cater for people out for a few beers and are creative enough to cook their own food.
I hate coming home smelling of ’second-hand chips’ from FAT people who can’t be bothered to cook.
The ban is just another attempt to make people feel a trip to the local isn’t worth-while. Then the pub will become unprofitable and it can be closed, knocked down and another 100 shoe boxes (sorry luxury apartments) can be built and left empty (to let) until someone stupid or desperate enough happens along and passes most of their low income to the chancer who bought the box from the mega greedy developer. Nice work New Labour.
I WROTE TO MY MP RE THE SMOKING BAN BEING RIDICULOUS BUT HE WROTE BACK SAYING THAT HE AGREED WITH THE BAN AND SUGGESTED THAT THEY NEED TO SAFEGUARD BAR STAFF AS THEY MIGHT HAVE DIFFICULTY FINDING ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYMENT. I WROTE BACK TO SAY THAT HE WAS VOTED IN TO REFLECT PEOPLES OPINIONS AND NOT HIS OWN AND STATED THAT NOW THIS BAN IS IN THE BAR STAFF WILL STILL HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER JOB WHEN THE PUBS SHUT DOWN.JUST COME BACK FROM SPAIN WHERE THEIR GOVERNMENT LISTEN TO THEIR PEOPLE AND WITH THEIR WEATHER PERHAPS A BAN THERE WOULDN’T MATTER SO MUCH. ALSO WITH NO LAW AND ORDER IN THIS COUNTRY WE’RE MORE LIKELY TO COST THE NHS MONEY AFTER BEING BEATEN AND ROBBED WHILST OUTSIDE SMOKING.