£9 pint!

[rebbonk]

Your pint could soon cost £9 amid 6% price hikes in pubs and restaurants

Drinkers are being warned to brace for £9 pints due to pub and restaurant prices heading for another 6% spike in the next year.

Industry bosses say in a new report that they expect to hike bar and menu bills again as overhead costs increase – after they already soared 9% in the last 12 months.

Communities across the country are also in danger of seeing their local pubs call last orders for the final time because the businesses can no longer handle mounting inflation – which is feared to be headed for 15% next year.

Hospitality trade analysts CGA reported that the most expensive pint it found was in London and priced at £8.

New figures from the group, in association with the Business Confidence Survey by hospitality experts Fourth, means a pint would cost £8.48 this time next year.

An average pint in the UK was £2.30 in 2008, but the price of pints this year increased by 72% to an average of £3.95.

In London, an average beer already costs £5.50, according to finder.com.

Higher costs across the hospitality sector will also push up prices for takeaways, clubs and hotels into 2023.

There are estimates that a standard meal at Nando’s of butterfly chicken, sides and drinks for a family of four would go from around £68 to £72.08.

Sebastien Sepierre, Fourth’s managing director, explained: ‘The hospitality industry has had a torrid time over the last two and a half years, and the ongoing supply chain disruption is the latest challenge that businesses have had to contend with.’

Karl Chessell from CGA added: ‘The double whammy of cost and availability issues is piling huge pressure on operators’ margins. Combined with the growing cost-of-living crisis for consumers, it means trading conditions will be very tough over the remainder of 2022.

‘Hospitality’s long-term future is bright, but for now leaders will have to find the right balance between absorbing soaring costs and passing them on to guests.

‘The huge supply challenges also highlight the need for urgent and sustained government support for the sector.’

Hospitality venues say they are facing higher energy bills, a shortage of ingredients and supply issues as food and drink becomes more expensive.

There is also a continuing drought of staff due to employee exoduses in the wake of Brexit and Covid.

The new report found 81% of hospitality business have been impacted by shortages of key food and drink products, while 71% reported ‘significant increases’ in energy costs.

It is feared raising prices will not stop the rapid rate of inflation harming struggling pubs even more than the repeated Covid lockdowns.

The costs are expected to keep away droves of customers, and when dwindling numbers of drinkers and eaters are combined with brutal running costs, experts say it could lead to more of Britain’s pubs closing.

Around 200 pubs vanished from English and Welsh communities from the end of 2021 to the end of June, taking the total down to 39,973 bars.

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said publicans are stuck ‘between a rock and a hard place’ as they attempt to cope with rising bills, while customers are cutting back on spending.

She added: ‘Pubs need to cover their costs, but they also have customers who are tightening their belts – it’s completely unsustainable.

‘It’s not an exaggeration to say what we are facing in terms of rising costs could have a worse impact than the pandemic in terms of business closures.’

Source: https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/18/your-pint-could-soon-cost-you-9-pint-amid-6-price-hikes-in-pubs-17205490/

The end of the pub trade as we knew it is nigh!

[dutchman]

The end of the pub trade as we knew it is nigh!

It disappeared a long time ago in my opinion.

[rebbonk]

The end of the pub trade as we knew it is nigh!

It disappeared a long time ago in my opinion.

Yes, it's a mere shadow of what we grew up with.

[dutchman]

More than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive winter as energy costs soar



Britain’s independent brewers have urged ministers to step in to save the sector, as research revealed more than 70% of pubs do not expect to survive the winter if nothing is done to ease energy costs.

In a letter to the chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, independent brewers on Tuesday called for immediate government intervention, warning a once thriving cottage industry was now facing “grave uncertainty”. They said the impact of surging energy bills was being compounded by a fall in sales as households seek to save money, shortages of equipment such as kegs, cans and CO2 gas, and a poor hop harvest pushing up prices.

“We have entered one of the most challenging times for the brewing sector,” the Society of Independent Brewers said, in a letter also signed by the chair of the Campaign for Real Ale. “Small brewers are reporting that their energy bills are doubling or trebling, putting their future ability to brew at risk”.

The warning came as pub operators reported similar rises in energy costs, with reports that some suppliers are refusing to offer new contracts to the sector because they fear pubs may not be able to pay their bills. More than 35% of operators said they had seen their utility costs double, while 30% said their costs had tripled, according to a survey for the trade publication the Morning Advertiser.

One operator said they had been quoted a cost for their energy that was nearly six times higher than on their current contract – with the price per unit shooting up from 14p to 83p.

Almost three-quarters of respondents said they would not be able to afford the increases.

Brewers and pub operators are asking the government to step in to prevent further damage, with reductions in VAT and business rates, caps on energy prices for small businesses, and grants for renewable technology to help lower their energy use.

Heath Ball, managing director of the Frisco Group, which operates three pubs across the south-east of England, said pubs were facing a “doomsday scenario”.

“This energy bill crisis comes on the back of the most testing of times as businesses try to recover from the Covid crisis and I think it poses an even greater threat to the survival of pubs,” he told the Morning Advertiser.

He added that even operators that could afford to pay the elevated prices are not being offered new power contracts because the sector is deemed to be “high risk”. Ball said the government needed to “find a solution to this now or face mass pub and restaurant closures”.

The Society of Independent Brewers represents about 700 independent craft brewers across the UK, including London’s Five Points Brewing, Wales’s Magic Dragon Brewing, and Yorkshire’s Gorilla Brewing Company. It said about 160 small brewers had been lost during the coronavirus lockdown and that at least another 40 had been forced to close this year. Those that survived emerged with average debts of £30,000 which they have had to start repaying.

The letter to Zahawi also expressed concern over delays to the introduction of the “draught relief” policy, a 5% cut to the duty on beer sold in pubs announced by Rishi Sunak in last year’s budget.

In July, the Treasury announced that the outcome of a review of alcohol duty would not be published until the autumn.

“Many brewers have already factored these duty changes into their planning for next year, but do not know if they will happen on time,” the letter said.

Nik Antona, chair of Camra, said: “Pubgoers and beer drinkers want to see urgent action from government.

“With businesses having pulled out all the stops to make it through the pandemic, it would be a travesty if more of our local, small and independent breweries were forced to close for good now due to the crisis with the cost of energy, goods and doing business.”