LONDON: The traditional British pub is in peril. Squeezed by a nationwide smoking ban, rising costs, competition from supermarkets and the economic downturn, the pub industry reported Monday that beer sales have fallen to their lowest level since the Great Depression. Pub managers around the country are now pulling some 14 million pints a day, 1.6 million fewer than last year and 7 million less than at the height of the market in 1979. The pressures on the industry are speeding up a long-term decline -- more than 1,400 pubs called last orders for the final time in 2007 and the Campaign for Real Ale claims that more than half Britain's villages are "dry" for the first time since the Norman Conquest of 1066. Rob Hayward, the chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, whose members brew 98 percent of Britain's beer and include nearly two-thirds of the country's pubs, urged the government to rethink heavy taxes which the industry blames in large part for its woes.
LONDON: The traditional British pub is in peril.
Squeezed by a nationwide smoking ban, rising costs, competition from supermarkets and the economic downturn, the pub industry reported Monday that beer sales have fallen to their lowest level since the Great Depression.
Pub managers around the country are now pulling some 14 million pints a day, 1.6 million fewer than last year and 7 million less than at the height of the market in 1979.
The pressures on the industry are speeding up a long-term decline -- more than 1,400 pubs called last orders for the final time in 2007 and the Campaign for Real Ale claims that more than half Britain's villages are "dry" for the first time since the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Rob Hayward, the chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, whose members brew 98 percent of Britain's beer and include nearly two-thirds of the country's pubs, urged the government to rethink heavy taxes which the industry blames in large part for its woes.
This is just an excuse for the pub chains to offload any pub that isn't mega-profitable. Why expend resource on pubs that are just doing nicely when you can concentrate support on huge money spinners ? After all, corporate UK doesn't give a shit about quality or choice. In fact it's hostile to both concepts and would prefer to eliminate the very idea as it would be much better if people just drank what they were told, where they were told. The public wants what the public gets and the public gets what the public wants. keep to the Fen Causeway
After all, I know pubs in Central london that do beer for £1:80 - 1:90
The ones I know selling cheap tend to be those who both own their own properties and are in private hands - as opposed to Guy Hands....:-).
eg Sam Smiths (I think)
I couldn't believe I could get decent beer under £2.00 a pint almost literally on Trafalgar Square. (Chandos Arms - corner of St Martin's Lane...)
Also, it's quite noticeable that Wetherspoon's prices are directly correlated to local property rental values.
eg my former local - the "Half Moon" near Stepney Green tube (rough as a badger's arse) - sold beer at maybe £1.00 pint less than West End and City Wetherspoons
Most major Pub estates have long been financial property plays, nothing more, and it shows in the beer prices. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
a) Generically there has been some change in choice of drinks, it seems every year more people will have a glass of wine or one of the dreaded "alcopops." Just counting the beer drunk doesn't tell you how much money a bar till is taking in.
b) Some of the bigger chain destinations are really pubs only in name and focus heavily on loud music and alcopops and various "shots" as their core business. (The Wetherspoons in the centre of Leeds is only not a "nightclub" because they have brighter lighting...
