Licensee's fury over outdoor glass ban 17 April, 2008
By James Wilmore
Hampshire bar forced to use plastic glasses
A frustrated licensee has branded an outdoor glass ban at his bar as “completely unfair”.
Rob Bates, licensee of the Rhu Bar, in Basingstoke, Hampshire, has been ordered by his council to serve drinks in plastic glasses to customers using his outdoor area.
Other pubs and bars in the vicinity have also fallen foul of the blanket ban.
But he is furious about the clampdown and claims it could ruin his business.
Bates told thepublican.com: “I’ve been here eight years and never had any problems. We are an over-25s bar that sells quality wine. It’s completely unfair and is just treating people like kids.”
“All the trouble is caused by other bars,” Bates added. “If there’s trouble on the streets, that’s not our problem, it’s the police’s.”
Although an original appeal against the ban was rejected by the council, Bates said he is appealing again with the help of a local councillor.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s licensing manager Linda Cannon said the Rhu Bar was on a street ranked fourth highest in the borough for violent crime, while the smoking ban had increased the number of people outside venues.
She added: “For this reason, the council, in discussion with the police, imposed a condition that plastic glasses should be used just for those drinking outside in bars in this area of the town as a precautionary safety measure, to stop the risk of glass being used in any fights or anti-social behaviour.” http://www.thepublican.com
A CONTROVERSIAL Blackpool landlord who has flouted the smoking ban has won a court fight to keep his bar open. Hamish Howitt had the licence for Delboy's Sports Bar on Rigby Road indefinitely taken away by Blackpool Council's licensing committee in a hearing on November 18 last year.
The bar has stayed open, however, as Mr Howitt sought to appeal the decision.
He was accused of failing two underage test purchases and failing to prove electrical work and an air conditioning unit were safely maintained.
None of the charges related to his defiance of the smoking ban at the bar, for which he has already been convicted twice.
But a deputy district judge yesterday overturned the decision, saying Blackpool Council's submissions in court were "not sufficient" to take away the licence for good.
A delighted Mr Howitt, 56, of Park Road, Blackpool, said: "I think justice has been done today.
"The judge was under so much pressure and I think she thought it out so carefully. She criticised me about some things and I take her point and I will make sure all works are perfect.
"I'm proud of the way I run my pub."
The court had heard evidence from Blackpool council public protection officer Gareth Shaw, who said Mr Howitt had failed to provide evidence that electrical works had been completed to a satisfactory standard.
But Mr Howitt denied those claims, which l ed to an impromptu site inspection with the judge and legal advisers visiting the bar along with prosecution solicitors to inspect the electrics.
On their return, council solicitor Mr Ben Williams said the court had heard nothing that should alter the decision of the council committee.
But Mr Howitt, defending himself, said: "I swear I would never jeopardise my family or my punters. I love them all."
Deputy district judge Jane Goodwin stated: "I don't find there is sufficient grounds to revoke the licence and I'm going to uphold Mr Howitt's appeal."
Mr Howitt still faces a number of outstanding charges relating to his defiance of the smoking ban.
He maintains that his stance is a political one and says he gives his customers freedom to choose.
Mr Howitt owns another bar, the Happy Scots Bar, adjacent to Delboy's Sports Bar, in which he does not allow customers to smoke. http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/
Pubs plan for fall in trade following smoking ban By JACKIE TURLEY PUBS across the Island have braced themselves for a drop in trade as a result of the smoking ban. The ban came into effect just over a week ago and, although landlords have said it is too early to assess the impact, they are concerned about the pub trade in the Island.
Earle Law, landlord of the Rovers Return, Church Street, Douglas, said: 'Everyone's going to lose a bit of money. The pubs that were taking quite a bit of money before the ban came in should be OK because they can afford to lose a bit of money each week.
'But the small pubs that have just been above the break-even line can't afford to lose much.
'When they start making a loss there is a danger they will have to close, like many pubs in the north of England.'
He said there were two options if he started to lose a significant amount of money in his pub: either shorten the hours of certain staff or lay some of them off.
Nigel Dobson, landlord of the Liverpool Arms, Main Road, Baldrine, said he was hoping to make up for the expected loss in drinks trade by promoting food.
He said it was expected that the 'wet' trade would drop by 10 to 15 per cent and that food trade would eventually increase.
'It's surviving the intervening period while it settles down,' he said.
He said that, because of the smoking ban, he was having to invest 'quite a lot of money' in refurbishing the pub and creating an outdoor area.
Colin Moore, manager of Legends Nightclub, Peveril Square, Douglas, and Macbeths, Victoria Street, Douglas, said his staff and customers were talking about the inconvenience of the ban.
'The football was on the other night. You could see people were eager to have a cigarette but didn't want to miss the action,' he said.
He hoped that the nightclub would be insulated from the effects of the ban as he said it was one of the few clubs with a dedicated smoking area http://www.iomtoday.co.im
April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Mitchells & Butlers Plc, the owner of the All Bar One pub chain, said first-half revenue was little changed as a smoking ban weighed on drinks sales in U.K. bars.
Sales at outlets open at least a year rose 0.6 percent in the 27 weeks ended April 5, the London-based company said today in a statement. Food revenue rose 4.8 percent on that basis, while drinks sales fell 1.4 percent, according to the statement.
Mitchells said today it's still working on the strategic review it started in January after posting a 274 million-pound loss on hedges tied to a failed property transaction with real estate investor Robert Tchenguiz. That loss led Punch Taverns Plc, the largest U.K. pub owner, to make and later withdraw a 2 billion-pound offer for Mitchells. U.K. pub sales are suffering from waning consumer confidence and a ban on smoking in public places, which came into force in England in July.
Sales of food and drinks other than beer will ``underpin a resilient operating performance for the year as a whole,'' Mitchells said in the statement. ``The outlook for consumer confidence remains weak while the on-trade beer market is likely to remain depressed,'' the company said. More Britons are buying beer in supermarkets to drink at home, rather than in pubs.
Mitchells fell 13.5 pence, or 4 percent, to 328.25 pence in London trading yesterday. The shares have fallen about 64 percent from a record high of 907.5 pence in May last year, when the property deal with Tchenguiz looked likely to succeed.
To contact the reporter on this story: Amy Wilson in London at awilson23@bloomberg.net.
Mixed results after year of smoking ban in Wales By Olivia Boyd
Some pubs may close doors as ban takes its toll
Pubs in parts of Wales are considering closing their doors on week nights as they continue to struggle with the impact of the smoking ban.
The ban was enforced in Wales a year ago today and John Price, secretary of the Wales LVA and licensee of the Bush Hotel in Blaenclydach, Rhondda said it has damaged the trade beyond repair.
He said: “A lot of our pubs are talking about closing their doors for three nights a week and only opening at weekends.
“People don’t come out now. They are buying booze in the supermarkets and staying at home.
“My own trade is terrible. There was a point last week where I only took £50 over two days.”
But Alan Rohman of The Brunswick, a food-led pub in Swansea, said the ban had helped boost business: “If anything the number of people coming to the pub has increased.”
Carol Robins of The Clifton in Cardiff added: “It is much better for bar staff now and most people are quite satisfied to go out into the yard area to smoke.”
Brains Brewery, which owns around 250 pubs in Wales said the ban had boosted food sales but it was too early to draw conclusions about its effects.
Retail director Philip Lay said: “It is still too early to be definitive on specific trading patterns post smoking ban, particularly because the weather has played such a factor since its introduction.” http://www.thepublican.com
Roy Beers: Ready for round two of the great war on smoking? By Roy Beers
Two years into the Scottish smoking ban – which has now become a British smoking ban – the battle lines are as sharply drawn as ever.
It’s still, take your pick, either the “greatest health reform for a generation” or (my preference) a crude attempt at social engineering which badly backfired.
The choice depends on whether you agree with the views of the since-ousted Labour administration which railroaded the ban into law, or, for example, those of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association.
When the ban came into force on March 26 2006, so we were told, a valiant blow was struck for Scottish health which would deliver incalculable benefits for us all. We’re still waiting.
Former First Minister Jack McConnell’s unilaterally-declared health crusade was announced with considerable bombast after a visit to exactly one smoke-free chain pub in Dublin.
Did he have a sort of Damascene conversion to blanket ban, or was he following orders from Number Ten? Nobody knows what went on in political smoke-free rooms.
Many observers at the time commented that McConnell, frequently criticised as “weak”, had a great political need to be seen to be doing something “strong”.
He needed a stratagem to equal fictional PM Jim Hacker’s defence of the Great British Sausage against the hated Eurosausage – something populist and apparently laudable but unconnected to serious politics.
Even if that were the case (and of course it’s just a cynical theory) he was surely sincere in thinking he was doing the right thing, although as it turned out he gained absolutely no political kudos from the ban in any case.
The legislation was continually trumpeted as a “success” throughout Labour’s doomed 2007 election campaign, which however saw McConnell defeated, losing office to the SNP’s Alex Salmond – a catastrophe for Labour which at a stroke ended half a century of political hegemony in Scotland.
Amid all the sound and fury of the one-sided debate leading up to the ban was the SLTA’s insistence that a partial measure, allowing bars to have indoor smoking areas staff wouldn’t have to enter, would be a fair way of dealing with the situation. However nobody was listening.
Such a compromise solution would have guaranteed bar staff clean air, given everyone free choice, and would in many cases have avoided all the subsequent hoo-ha about who could and couldn’t have a shelter, canopies etc; and, sure as night follows day, the complaints about noise from smokers.
Not every bar could have brought in such measures, of course. Many town and city “trad” bars are single-room operations, often with nothing but the street as an outside area. They were marked for slump or closure from the start.
The ban was bounced through the Scottish Parliament, opposed only by the Tories, and bar operators promptly found themselves playing postcode lottery.
Some councils, for example Dundee, took as negative and unhelpful a stance as possible; others, for example East Ayrshire, bent over backwards to help licensees. Glasgow’s senior civil servant on the case told a packed licensees meeting a shelter couldn’t have a roof (not true), only to have to admit very soon after that she’d got it wrong. It was a good old-fashioned shambles.
As the farce unfolded through a thousand little planning sagas, replete with municipal obfuscation and petty tyranny, operators including Belhaven and Punch pumped money into outdoor areas: independent operators with cash and viable areas did likewise.
Hardly anybody has been fined for smoking or permitting smoking, although, absurdly, innumerable taxi drivers in over-zealous Paisley were spot-fined for smoking in their cabs while awaiting a hire – a classic example of officialdom completely losing the plot.
Walk down pubs-and-restaurants strip Ashton Lane in Glasgow’s West End any busy-ish day of the week, and you’ll see (I’m sad enough to have tried this several times) that every outdoor table now plays host to one or more usually several smokers.
A few of the “luckier” bars in the area have those decked shelter areas you only used to see on holiday, while countless ordinary cafes have sprouted canopies, tables and chairs to hook into a mythical “continental table café culture”, in which we all become jolly boulevardiers.
One journalist, perhaps a little unkindly, described Glasgow these days as “looking like Paris after a nuclear attack” because of this new scruffily-defiant street life.
Meanwhile SLTA chief executive Paul Waterson says he’s convinced hardly anyone has given up smoking – some may have had a shot at it – and that the main effect has been a retreat of the former smoking regulars into each other’s living rooms, where they’re free to enjoy discount supermarket beer with no licensing hours constraints.
The new customers the trade was promised (admittedly by people who had never run the proverbial whelk stall) haven’t arrived, he says. Some did pop down to the pub out of curiosity, or novelty, but they didn’t make a habit of it.
Arguments will continue to rage about the damage done to the trade, and about whether the ban really did any good, but of course there have been winners: the idea that every bar could become a restaurant always seemed a bit daft, but some operators have managed to make a main attraction out of food.
More impressive still, to my mind, are the traditional bars which have no intention of bringing in food in any big way – it’s not the job they want to do – but which have instead got by through offering, say, quality cask ale, or a good selection of malt whiskies, but most particularly just by “being themselves”.
The best publicans have often managed to retain their smoking regulars by being the same old indispensable social forum as always. A sort of “Dunkirk spirit” prevails between landlord and regulars: “the Government” can’t be allowed to close the pub.
Of course it’s also beyond dispute that some bars badly needed to be tackled; it was no longer acceptable to see clouds of smoke drifting over a bar area.
The most common comment now is that your clothes no longer stink after visiting or working in a bar, and of course the ban has meant many people with asthma or other respiratory problems have been able to visit pubs as never before.
But the ban was never about any of these individual benefits. It was always about choosing a high profile easy-mark target through which to exert a form of social control: no thought or consideration was given to any of the cogently-argued alternatives, and the trade was treated with ill-disguised contempt throughout what many declared was a sham consultation.
So far claims about any alleged health benefits of the ban have been sparse. One or two of the more bizarre attempts to talk it up have been laughed out of court. Bar staff are better off, which is great (although this could have been achieved with a partial ban) and children, where allowed in bars, aren’t exposed to fumes.
But in the areas where most smoking happens – say, for example, Shettleston in Glasgow’s East End, with something like 44% adult smokers – it’s hard to see the point of the ban. Very often the local trad boozer has shut, and/or its customers have simply taken the anyway much cheaper option of going home with a carry-out.
The middle class world of licensed bistros inhabited by politicians is reassuringly squeaky clean; but even here we’re told people don’t visit as often, and don’t stay as long.
Food sales help, particularly if they’re inspiring quality wine sales, but it’s a labour-intensive exercise relative to the benefits. Besides, substantial numbers of people still value the concept of “the pub” over the licensed café-bar: they don’t want to sit and watch people eating – they want a “proper bar”, not a restaurant.
But, two years on, surely the dust has settled and we can all get on with our lives?
Unfortunately, not quite. A year or so ago there were a couple of abortive attempts to ban smoking outside pubs – one argument being that customers entering or leaving bars were having to run the gauntlet of clouds of smoke billowing from refugee smokers around the door.
The time wasn’t right for such a move then – its proponents were shooed away - but the argument remains, and it’s not hard to see a future government (Scottish or UK) ratcheting up restrictions in an attempt to be seen to be “doing something” about smoking and health.
They may also come under pressure to “do something” about the wholly foreseeable side-effects caused by the ridiculous, ill-considered legislation in the first place.
Councils tend to be more worried about noise, and under Scotland’s new Licensing Act, with its much greater scope for objecting to licences, it’s all to easy to predict local “bans” on outdoor smoking creeping in by the back door – then being formalised for the whole country in some way, a year or so down the line.
If that does come about the trade from smokers will dry up altogether. Does that mean the concept of the traditional pub, beset by spiralling costs and bureaucracy, would then really be preparing to make its last stand?
That might sound a bit apocalyptic – opponents of the ban are always accused of crying wolf – but pub habits have already undergone major change, and not all of it positive. For a lot of bars, I’m sure, one more shove is all it would take. http://www.thepublican.com
The Prince of Wales highlights importance of local pubs
The Prince has invited Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Minister, to accompany him on a visit to The Black Swan Hotel Valerie Elliott, Consumer Editor
With as many as 27 village pubs closing every week, the Prince of Wales has taken up the cudgels on behalf of beleaguered locals across the country, pointing out the pub’s importance to society and local economies.
He has invited Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Minister, to accompany him today on a visit to The Black Swan Hotel in Ravenstonedale, Cumbria, to see how an ailing pub can transform its fortunes.
Two years ago The Black Swan was run down and for sale. However, under its new owners, Alan and Louise Dinnes, the pub has a turnover of more than £600,000 a year and is an essential part of the community.
Mrs Dinnes said that they knew from the outset that they could not rely on drinks sales for an income. She said: “We knew, too, it was important to be part of the local community. So we asked people what they would like us to do and got them involved.
“We have put in broadband and there is free internet access. We have installed a coffee machine and provide newspapers each day.”
With a £6,000 grant from the Prince’s Business in the Community programme the couple have converted a downstairs bedroom into a new general store, which is now a showcase for local food, crafts and gifts.
The Prince’s “Pub is the Hub” campaign, which began six years ago, was intended to ensure the viability of what are seen as essential amenities in rural areas. Already about 350 English pubs have benefited from small grants and expertise offered by his Business in the Community scheme. However, an industry survey claims that traditional pubs are disappearing at the rate of 4 a day. Many villages face the prospect of becoming permanently “dry”, but the threat is just as great to pubs in town and suburbs.
The British, Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) says that at least another 1,000 will close before the end of this year. The rise in duty in the Budget is the catalyst for the latest gloom among Britain’s publicans, who number about 57,000. The credit squeeze had already depressed takings this year and comes on the heels of the smoking ban, increased red tape and promotions of very cheap alcohol by supermarkets. Caroline Nodder, editor of The Publican, said: “Publicans just feel they have been stabbed in the back.”
David Cameron said that the Conservatives would tackle red tape. He also urged people to stop complaining about losing pubs and start visiting them. He said: “If you want to keep your local pub you have to use it.”
Mr Benn also offered support. He said: “The rural pub is more than just a business, it is the heart of the rural community.”
Among the 27 pubs that will close this week is the Roseneath in Gillingham, Kent, where Helen Dodson called time yesterday after 20 years in the business. Ms Dodson said that the smoking ban had made life difficult, but cheap alcohol in supermarkets had been the final straw. “We used to get 50 or 60 in a night and now it’s 10 to 15,” she said. “I really lay the blame on cheap supermarket alcohol.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk
What ever happens in America seems to spread itself into our way of life and Berkeley has been responsible for taking more extreme measures against wicked and evil smokers-be sure our own anti smoking Facists have this planned for us in the near future-indeed Barnsley Council recently had to backtrack from attempting to make their outside cafe area's and street non-smoking part of the current ban.
During the summer months you will hear a great deal of whining and moaning and outright nastiness from anti smoking zealots who don't like smokers being outside pubs-they cannot enjoy their food,they have to pass through a cloud of smoke to get in a pub,there is too much noise-last summer was a washout, a half decent summer this year and smokers will be blamed for everything from binge drinking outdoors to global warming from patio heaters.
Berkeley Expands Smoking Ban BERKELEY, Calif. (KCBS) -- The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to expand an already-tough outdoor smoking ban to include all commercial zones. The ban previously only included sidewalks along 16 major streets.
Mayor Tim Bates, himself a former smoker, said enforcement is complaint driven
"Certainly it's in peoples' best interest not to have a smoker around them. So we hope that we can convince people that it's the right thing to do," Bates explained.
Violators will be fined $100 for a first offense, and as much as $500 after multiple offenses. http://www.kcbs.com/
A full house? Not since smoking ban, says Gala By Josephine Woode Comment The number of visitors to a Hounslow bingo hall are down since last year's smoking ban, bingo bosses have said.
Gala Bingo, in Staines Road, attributed losses of 30 per cent to the legislation banning smoking in public places, which came in to effect in July last year.
Surrender Kumar who has worked at the hall for 18 years, said: "The drop in the number of customers has forced us to stop trading on Sunday afternoons.
"It has had a huge effect on takings because Saturday evenings are no longer as busy as before.
"We have set up a shelter outside for smokers and brought in weekend game promotions."
A study, conducted by research organisation Mintel, revealed the bingo trade would continue to suffer a decline.
It estimated that between 2007 and 2008, the trade would decline by 12 per cent to be worth less than £205billion.
The period 2004 to 2005 showed a 24 per cent increase in trade.
Helen Spicer, from Mintel, said: "The smoking ban has meant that many players simply stay away from bingo halls, or if they do go, they head out during the intervals for a quick cigarette.
"As well as the smoking ban, the Gambling Act of 2005 includes licensing changes that have had a drastic effect on the market.
"If the industry doesn't come up with new ideas, British bingo could soon be a thing of the past." http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk
Another pub chain falls victim to the ban on smoking Martin Hickman For more than a decade, the names Slug and Lettuce, Hogshead, Ha Ha and Yates have spread rapidly, colonising some of the country's prime city centre and suburban locations. But now they have become victims of the clean-air culture brought about by the smoking ban.
The Laurel Pub Company, owner of some of the country's best-known high street bar brands, has collapsed. The development comes as breweries and pub chains blame the ban for encouraging smokers to stay at home rather than visit their local.
Some 388 pubs were placed in administration this week, though a rescue deal orchestrated by the company's colourful owner, the Iranian property investor Robert Tchenguiz, will ensure the brands survive.
According to the British Beer and Pubs Association, the smoking ban in England and Wales combined with the credit crunch and a decline in drinking are responsible for closing pubs at their fastest rate in history – 27 a week.
The Massive Pub Company, which owned the Tup chain of pubs in London and the Sports Café chain, have both been placed in administration, while Regents Inns, owner of the Walkabout chain, has been forced into the sale of 94 bars.
In the past two months, Marstons, Greene King, Fuller, Smith and Turner and Wetherspoons have all announced their profits have been hit by the ban on smoking in public.
The Government outlawed lighting up in restaurants, bars and other public spaces on 1 July last year.
Publicans installed awnings and patio heaters to encourage smokers to go to the pub. However, commentators say that has failed to prevent the ban hitting the £15bn-a-year industry, with traditional "wet-led" local pubs the worst affected. Mark Brumby, a drinks analyst with Blue Oar Securities, estimated that the smoking ban had cost between 3 and 4 per cent of sales – or about £600m.
He predicted, however, that some pubs experiencing falling sales would successfully reinvent themselves as family friendly destinations. But there would be winners and losers.
"Within the industry the family-friendly, food-led pubs in places such as Hemel Hempstead and St Albans may never lose sales. Some of the city boozers may go down by 25 per cent, and never recover," he said.
The collapse of the Laurel Pub Chain on Thursday indicated the impact of the smoking ban was spreading to suburban locations.
Alastair Beveridge, of the administrators Kroll, said: "Low consumer confidence combined with the impact of the smoking ban has led to difficult trading conditions in the leisure sector."
On the same day, two new companies, set up and bankrolled by £50m and £60m by Mr Tchenguiz, Bay Restaurants and Town & City, bought 288 profitable outlets from Laurel.
According to The Publican, the remaining 90 loss-making pubs in administration – five Slug and Lettuce, 11 Ha Ha, 40 Yates and seven Litten Tree – owe £8.6m in unpaid rent.
The pubs have now, in effect, been cut adrift from Mr Tchenguiz's empire, with the expected loss of about 800 jobs.
How new law hit the trade
"Since the half year, the slowdown in consumer spending and input price inflation on top of the smoking ban have made operating conditions more challenging." - Michael Turner, chairman of Fuller, Smith & Turner, 1 February
"It has had greater impact than some felt it would." - Bob Ivell, chairman of Regent Inns, 5 February
"The half year to 27 January 2008 was challenging ... the bans resulted in a strong growth in food sales but a decline in bar sales." - Tim Martin, chairman of J D Wetherspoon, 7 March
"They are struggling to find the new consumers that were expected to come in after the ban: older drinkers and families." - Caroline Nodder, editor of The Publican, 28 March http://www.independent.co.uk
AN internet campaign to get Alistair Darling banned from every pub in the UK has been inspired by a bar in the Capital. Last week, the News revealed that Utopia on Easter Road had put up a poster barring the Chancellor after his 4p per pint tax increase in the Budget.
The report prompted an Edinburgh-based blog, Musings of a Reactionary Snob, to call for the ban to be made nationwide.
The campaign has 110 supporters on its Facebook site, and pubs in Bolton, Lewes and Oxfordshire have followed Utopia.
Several posters have been designed – including one depicting the Edinburgh South MP as a Simpson's character in Moe's Tavern. The text says: "Finally Alistair Darling finds a pub he is not barred from."
The Reactionary Snob blogger, who describes himself as a 53-year-old advocate, says: "Alistair Darling has been barred from a pub in Leith because of the taxes he's just stuck on the good stuff. However, he is hardly ever going to be down in Leith on the sauce.
"I therefore implore all bloggers to petition their locals – let's get Darling banned from pubs up and down the land!" http://news.scotsman.com
Hold on if you plan to turn your pub into the new gastro dining experience for your area. Cancel the kitchen refit and put the interviews on hold if you are searching for the new Gordon Ramsey-the flood of new non smoking customers are not going to save your bacon.
Cash-strapped customers turn to takeaways By John Porter
Latest QuickBite data shows pubs losing casual dining trade
Consumers are increasingly opting for a takeaway on the sofa rather than a meal at the pub as the credit crunch continues to have an impact.
The latest QuickBite consumer eating out survey, carried out for market analyst FMCG, showed that Chinese takeaways overtook pub meals as the most popular out-of-home meal over the last quarter.
In a period covering key eating out occasions such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, the total number of meals eaten in pubs fell compared to the same quarter a year ago.
While the average meal spend per head increased to £17.50 a head, up 20 per cent year-on-year, FMCC director David Humphreys said this was a sign “that consumers are both saving up for a special occasion and eating in the upper end of the pub-restaurant market.
“To do so they are cutting back on the number of times they are eating out.”
Moves by managed pub chains to hold down prices, as shown by FMCG’s most recent Menurama data, are “ well-timed but may have a limited impact in rebuilding footfall on their own, “ said Humphreys.
“Pubs are significantly underperforming the total eating out market, and dragging it into negative territory compared to last year.” http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?storycode=59044
Time called on two town centre bars By James Morton
TIME has been called on two of Bournemouth's town centre bars amid claims that the effect of the smoking ban has begun to bite.
Label, on Old Christchurch Road, and Bar Med, on St Peter's Road, will pull their last pint tomorrow night.
Owner Laurel Pub Company is close to administration after failing to find buyers for almost 100 loss-making pubs, including the two Bournemouth bars, nationwide.
The closures are expected to affect between 30 and 40 staff in Bournemouth, though Laurel say they will be doing their "utmost to relocate staff where possible".
A Laurel spokesman said: "It's down to the smoking ban which came into effect last summer, and the difficult trading conditions with the on-going economic situation."
Laurel also own Yates's, Slug and Lettuce, Litten Tree and La Tasca outlets in Bournemouth and Poole but insist these are not under threat.
Only last year, another Laurel pub in Bournemouth, the Tapp and Hobbit in the Square, was converted to a La Tasca tapas restaurant to try and boost business.
Bar Med has been a Bournemouth nightlife staple for the best part of a decade and has always proved popular, especially with students.
Label was previously a Slug and Lettuce bar before the Slug moved to its current site on Richmond Hill.
Property entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz is poised to place his entire Laurel Pub Company in the hands of administrators, before launching an immediate bid to buy back the business with the exception of the loss-making sites.
Laurel runs around 460 outlets across the UK.
Weymouth's Hogshead pub is also to close its doors tomorrow. http://www.thisisdorset.net
One in 70 Scottish pubs closed in the last six months 13 March, 2008
By Matt Eley
SBPA raises concern at shocking figures
More than 80 pubs have closed in Scotland in the last six months, according to the Scottish Beer & Pub Association (SPBA).
The figures were released days after the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) said 27 pubs were closing across the UK every week.
The figures were produced by CGA Strategy as part of the BBPA's UK pub closure figures
Patrick Browne, the SBPA's chief executive, said: "These figures suggest that a total of 83 pubs closed in Scotland over the last six months with 19 of these in rural areas, 31 in suburban areas, and 33 of them in urban areas.
"That is one pub in every 47 urban pubs in Scotland, or one in every 69 overall as classified by CGA.
"Whilst there will always be churn in the licensed trade as pubs close and new ones open these figures should cause concern to policy makers in Scotland given that a large number of pub operators don't even appear to want to go through the process of licensing transition which only formally commenced on 7th March.
"Politicians in Scotland should realise that the impact of the legislative burden and costs they are imposing on Scotland's pubs is actually now starting to have an impact on pubs, many of which represent the heart of the communities they serve being forced to close their doors and cease trading" http://www.thepublican.com
THE SMOKING ban may mean that the number is up for Montrose’s bingo hall. Gala Coral, the betting and gaming group which owns Gala Entertainments in Hume Street, confirmed yesterday that it is considering an offer received for the premises.
“We have been approached by somebody but nothing has been finalised,” said a group spokeswoman who could not say if it the buyer was interested in converting the premises into a pub/nightclub.
“We have spoken to the staff regarding the possibility of closure.
“The bingo hall has been an important part of the community for many years and decisions on possible closure are not taken lightly.
“We have other interests and may look at the possibility of Montrose staff being offered jobs elsewhere.”
Gala Coral admitted the potential sale takes place at a time when its business is facing the effects of a number of challenges, including the smoking ban.
When the smoking ban was introduced in March 2006, there were dire predictions about the impact on venues in which smoking is intimately bound up with with the experience, such as in bingo halls.
It is understood numbers at the bingo in the former King’s cinema have dropped with smoker regulars retreating to their homes where they can continue to enjoy a cigarette and gamble online without having to go outside.
The situation at Montrose is echoed elsewhere in Scotland where trade has been variable since the imposition of the smoking ban and has resulted in job losses. http://www.thecourier.co.uk
By Hamish Champ Operator bites the bullet on 60 of the 65 trading sites it has up for sale
Laurel Pub Company has today closed 60 of the 65 trading pubs it has on the market.
A spokesman for the group, owned by property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, said there had “to date been insufficient interest” in the pubs to justify their continued trading.
Of the 95 sites recently put up for sale, six had already been shuttered. Of the remaining 89, 24 were closed a month ago, leaving 65 trading outlets, including Yate's, Hogshead and Litten Tree brands.
Now 60 of these remaining sites have been closed.
“This is a regrettable decision but the pubs were costing Laurel more to run they were making and are financially unviable,” the spokesman said.
Laurel was doing “its utmost to relocate staff where possible”, he added, although it was impossible to predict numbers of those affected at this stage.
The 95 sites are currently attracting a rent of more than £8.6m a year, and in deciding to close a significant number of trading sites it appears Laurel believes it can cut its losses.
The closure news comes as Laurel is struggling to re-finance the business.
Laurel’s spokesman said that negotiations on the refinancing structure were “continuing”.
Concerns over future of town bars Landlords in Market Drayton say their businesses are under threat because of the smoking ban and competition from large pub chains and supermarkets.
Another town pub lease has now been put up for sale, and others are said to be struggling.
It comes two days after Alistair Darling’s first budget announced raised duties on beer, wine and spirits.
Sue Denic, from The Joiners Arms in Shrewsbury Road, is selling her lease and leaving to take a full-time job at Palethorpes.
She said after 12 years of running pubs she would miss the environment, but longer opening hours, cheep beer in supermarkets and the arrival of Wetherspoons had taken their toll. http://www.shropshirestar.com
Will the 'boozers are losers' Budget finally kill a great British institution?
The death knell for the traditional British pub tolled over Westminster this week.
It sounded out in the monotone of Chancellor Alistair Darling: "From midnight on Sunday, alcohol duty rates will increase by six per cent above the rate of inflation.
"Beer will rise by 4p a pint, cider by 3p a litre, wine by 14p a bottle and spirits by 55p a bottle."
The doctors, who warn of our alcohol problems while applying for extended licensing hours at the bar of the British Medical Association's HQ, cheered. Advertisement Click here to find out more!
But landlords in what my grandfather proudly called the "the wet trade" when he ran The Hare And Hounds in Stoke Newington, North London, felt like weeping. The "boozers are losers" Budget will be the final straw for many of them in the battle to stay in business.
Already the latest figures show pubs have been closing at the rate of 27 a week - nearly four every day - for the past year.
A total of 1,409 pubs closed in 2007 nationwide. This is a sharp rise on previous years. In 2006, 216 closed and in 2005 it was just 102.
Mark Hastings, of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: "Pub closures are threatening an important hub of our social fabric and community history. And the Budget will only accelerate this.
"This is the stark reality of the pub trade today. It stands in contrast to the hype surrounding the myth of '24-hour drinking' and extended pub opening hours."
The tax increases come on top of problems already facing locals. The price of a pint has already gone up by 25p this year due to hops and malt price rises. The smoking ban has forced many regulars out into the cold.
And brutal supermarket costcutting has proved devastating.
Why should a smoker pay £2.85 for a pint of lager to stand in the street at his local when he could enjoy his fag and a supermarket's 22p can at home?
The tax increases will also do little to curb binge drinking. Instead of people enjoying a pint in licensed premises overseen by a publican, they will buy cheap booze in supermarkets.
There is a financial incentive to drink in the street, to go on booze cruises or "pre-fuel" on cheap vodka before going out.
And a Britain without pubs will be hard to reverse. A Campaign for Real Ale survey found 31 per cent of pubs closed down are being demolished.
Another 36 per cent are converted to shops or restaurants, while 33 per cent become homes. Some survive as "gastropubs" - little more than theme bars of what a pub was like in Olde England. But there will be fewer places where communities can meet.
Locals have always been places where friends can chat.
For lonely people they are a lifeline. Prince Charles saluted the local when he launched the "Pub is the Hub" campaign.
But yesterday there were signs of a fightback. John Ellis of the Crown Inn, in Oakengates, Shropshire, told the trade's Morning Advertiser newspaper that people had had enough.
He said: "Every facet of the trade needs to fight or this is the beginning of the end for the British pub."
There was talk of a "strike" with every pub across the land closing for 48 hours to show punters what they would miss.
But what we need now is for publicans, brewers and even politicians to find a rescue package.
Or it really will be last orders.
It's the last straw
Norman Pearce, 61, is landlord of the Sun Inn, Corfton, near Ludlow, Shropshire. He says...
"I've been running the pub for 22 years and I've seen customer numbers steadily decline.
We're a rural pub and have had to diversify to survive. I've opened a micro-brewery and we make four types of real ale. But others will have to think about becoming the village shop if the trade at the bar dries up.
Part of the problem is supermarkets. People can buy cheap beer there and drink it at home. But the same cheap alcohol is causing all kinds of binge drinking.
But I've never seen anyone on the rampage after a few pints of real ale. If someone knocks your pint over here they apologise, not start a fight.
Youngsters may think a traditional pub is full of depressed old men. But nothing's further from the truth. It's very sociable. We're always striking up conversations and having a laugh.
I remember when people said they'd stop drinking if beer went up to 50p a pint. But I was still amazed when the Chancellor put 4p on a pint - it's the last thing we need."
Adapt to survive
Danny Fox is boss of The Living Room Group. He says...
"We own 13 bars across the country and are set to open another four this year. We make sure our bars are places people want to be.
They're cool, trendy and full of people who want to be seen and have a good time.
Our customers are generally younger and more glamorous.
We reflect how people live today, with comfortable and contemporary decor. It's like being in your own home, or how you'd like your home to be.
There's great music, which we lower at lunchtime when people might be having a meal and a conversation and raise the volume in the evening.
And as our customers travel the world we reflect this with an extensive cocktail list and a large range of continental beers.
Before the smoking ban came in to place people shifted to bars because the smell of tobacco didn't linger.
After the ban we installed outdoor areas and customers accepted it, as smoking hadn't been allowed for some time in the restaurant area."
Who will pay £2.85 for a pub pint when they can have a beer at home for only 22p? http://www.mirror.co.uk/
Inspired Gaming puts machine unit up for sale By Marc Jones
LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - Slot machine maker Inspired Gaming (INGG.L: Quote, Profile, Research) put its pub machine division up for sale on Friday, saying the smoking ban was continuing to choke the unit's profits.
Inspired, which saw a takeover by Iceland's FL Group (FL.IC: Quote, Profile, Research) fall through in December, said it was considering a number of strategic options for the struggling division and said it would detail its plans by June at the latest.
A ban on smoking in pubs brought in last July has hammered slot-machine takings.
Machine-playing smokers are staying at home rather than enduring smoke-free bars, while hard hit landlords are either calling time on their businesses or getting rid of the machines as they look to resurrect their takings by replacing drinkers with diners, who typically don't play machines.
Inspired warned earlier in the year that takings from its pub machines were plunging and said on Friday the situation had worsened, sending its shares down more than 13 percent in early trading.
"If this trend were to continue, the board do not believe that this recent deterioration in trading in the pubs division could be offset by gains in other areas of the business," the firm said.
A spokesman for the UK firm said "nothing had been ruled out," while analysts speculated that the firm may opt to just close down the division "We had been anticipating a contribution at the EBITDA level of 500,000 pounds but now believe that the outcome could be a loss of around 5 million pounds," said analysts at Numis.
"It had been our view that the pubs division was being deemphasised by management and that disposal/closure was always a likely outcome," they added.
By 0825 GMT Inspired's shares had fallen to 186.5 pence, almost half the price they were in September. (Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by David Cowell)
Darling hammers the pub Written by: Paul Charity Chancellor Alistair Darling has dropped a budget bombshell by unveiling a swingeing 4p rise in duty on a pint of beer and pledged to raise duty on alcohol by 2% above inflation for the next four years.
This year, Darling has increased alcohol duty by 6% above the rate of Inflation.
The move will add up 12p to 15p to a pint of beer and ensure beer prices rise by well above inflation for the foreseeable future.
Recent wholesale beer price increases from brewers mean the average print will have jumped in price by 25p since the start of the year. Cider is also up by 3p a litre. Duty on a bottle of wine will increase by 14p and 55p will be added to bottle of spirits. Darling said that the average price of a bottle of wine in the supermarket had dropped since 1997 from £4.45 to £4.
Rob Hayward, British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) chief executive, said: "Government is punishing all beer drinkers rather than tackling the minority of drunken hooligans. But Government tax policy is fuelling Britain¹s binge drink problem by driving people away from beer, out of the pub into the arms of the deep discounting supermarkets."
"They don't pay beer duty and don't allow brewers to pass it on, so their rock bottom prices will remain unaffected by this tax hike." He added: "The millions of people who enjoy beer have just been hit by a £50.5 million a month tax raid on their family budgets."
By aiming a tax hike at beer, the Chancellor is shooting himself in the foot. Treasury revenues will continue to fall, pubs will continue to close and beer sales sink further.
Every single day, the Treasury is losing over £1 million in beer taxes and four pubs are closing.
People are now drinking 1 million fewer pints a day compared with last year. That trend will continue.
"It¹s a decision doomed to failure bad for taxpayers, beer, pubs and bad for the Treasury as well." Opposition leader David Cameron said his party would have targeted duty increases to decrease binge-drinking.
John Ellis of the Crown Inn, a freehold wet-only pub in Oakengates, Shropshire, said: "It's a binge drinkers budget, he rattled through it very fast and all he could talk about was the price of wine in supermarkets - they're going to punish responsible drinkers. Supermarkets will continue to sell at below cost price despite this measure - it's the on-trade, which provides a safe and responsible drinking atmosphere, that's going to be hit. The government is promoting unsupervised drinking, it¹s as simple as that. Every facet of the trade needs to come together and fight or this is the beginning of the end for the British pub." http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk
Landlords in Lincoln say a double whammy of cheap booze and the smoking ban is pushing the traditional pub to the brink of extinction.
The Carholme Inn is the city's latest pub casualty, having been put up for sale by its owners with a price tag of £300,000.
London-based property agency Paramount Investments, which is selling the pub, said it could be bulldozed and turned into flats if new owners can't be found.
This follows the closure of The Manvers Arms in Monks Road and the Steamhammer Inn in Stamp End
Of the 17 pubs the Echo contacted, 16 reported a slump in profits or lack of customers.
Pub owners across the city have blamed last summer's ban on lighting up indoors and supermarkets selling bulk cheap alcohol for dwindling profits and a lack of customers.
Fears of an economic slowdown are also thought to be playing a part.
Erika Stroem, landlady at the Monson Arms in Skellingthorpe Road, said if something doesn't change soon Lincoln will lose all its community pubs.
"I'm running at about a loss of £1,300 a week at the moment," she said.
"Since the smoking ban we haven't had one new non-smoking customer.
"We had a lot of elderly customers who would come in for a fag and a pint and now we are losing them.
"On a Sunday we used to have a packed pub but now I have about two people in sat twiddling their thumbs." http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk
Closure blamed on smoking ban Ben Lindon A STRATFORD pub has called time for good after its trade went up in smoke Yates Wine Lodge in Windsor Street has closed down – blaming the ban on lighting up in public places for its massive drop in custom. The town bar – owned by the Laurel Pub Company – is one of 22 in the chain to fold since the July 1 smoke-free legislation. A spokesman for the group told us: “The Yates bar in Stratford has now closed. This is due to the impact of the smoking ban and the subsequent difficulties in trading. It is one of a number of Laurel pubs that have closed down.” They said where possible staff had been moved to other bars but redundancies were inevitable. The Windsor Street building that has housed Yates for more than a decade is now up for sale. Yates is the second major casualty of the smoke ban in the area -– as we reported back in January a pub in Salford Priors was also forced to call time having lost its regulars. http://www.stratfordobserver.co.uk/
Pub couple in court over smoke laws The husband and wife licensees of a rural pub have become the first in Norfolk to be prosecuted for flouting new laws aimed at protecting the public from second-hand smoke.
The landlord of the Dog and Partridge at East Wretham challenged the introduction of a nationwide smoking ban last year by describing it as a “blatant infringement of civil liberties.”
But Martin Turver and his wife Karen joined the select club of publicans across the country this week to be charged with failing to prevent smokers from stubbing out in enclosed public spaces.
The couple, who have run the south Norfolk inn for over 18 months, were not present at Thetford Magistrates' Court on Monday, but entered pleas through their solicitor to 15 counts of breaching the anti-smoking legislation on three occasions last year.
The charges, which are thought to be the first in East Anglia, followed an investigation by Breckland Council and a number of visits to the pub by council officers and police following complaints by customers and villagers.
Turver, 49, who lives at the Dog and Partridge, entered guilty pleas to failing to prevent smoking in the licensed premises on one occasion on July 25 and two occasions on August 31. He also admitted to lighting up in the smoke free place on the same day. Turver denies three counts of failing to prevent smoking on August 4 and obstructing an authorised Breckland Council officer on August 31.
Mrs Turver, 43, also of the pub in Watton Road, Wretham, admits six counts of failing to prevent smoking, but denies smoking in a smoke free place on August 31. After recording their pleas, magistrates adjourned the case until a later date at Swaffham this month.
Ian Ohlson, who also lives at the Dog and Partridge, is also accused of smoking in a smoke free place on August 31, but was not represented and did not appear.
Under the legislation that came into force on July 1, landlords can face a fine of up to £2,500 for failing to stop smoking in enclosed public spaces and individuals can receive a £50 fixed penalty notice. http://www.thetfordandbrandontimes.co.uk
FEARS are growing for the future of South Shields town centre nightlife hit by the smoking ban, cut-price supermarket booze and the global credit crunch.
Pub bosses, taxi drivers and restaurant owners all say the booming party scene, which the town enjoyed in the 1980s and 1990s, has been on the decline for almost a decade.
In the past three months the nightlife industry has been hit even harder after two key nightspots closed their doors. Eivissa, a town-centre name for almost a decade, shut last month, while recently million-pound development Chase in Ocean Road, closed after falling sales.
Today a Gazette investigation paints a bleak picture of a town centre – which once rivalled Newcastle and Sunderland as a top night out – fighting for customers.
Pubwatch chairman Glen Winlow, also manager of Dusk in Mile End Road, said: "The entire industry is in a rut at the moment, with the smoking ban, cheap supermarket alcohol and people having to tighten their belts because of the economic downturn.
"Town centre establishments are feeling the pinch, and drinking habits aren't what they used to be.
"Chase was part of a huge national chain and it closed, so that shows the kind of problems we face.
"Cheap supermarket drinks are also fuelling a resurgence of house parties which are affecting the trade, but I don't feel we're overpriced compared to Newcastle and Sunderland.
"I'm confident the town centre can bounce back, and I still believe there's a positive outlook on this."
But some taxi drivers say there's been a steady decline in trade for almost a decade.
Mark Wood, owner of Whiteleas Taxis, said: "There's only one night when people in South Shields head into town, and that's Saturday. It's such a shame.
"This hasn't happened overnight, there's been such long period of decline over several years."
A town centre pub boss, who didn't wish to be named, said: "I think a lot of people have buried their heads in the sand, hoping people will start coming back to South Shields, but unless major improvements are made to the town centre, I can't see the heyday returning very soon."
Mark Stamps, from Dial-A-Cab in Laygate, said: "South Shields town centre has been well and truly left behind.
"People looking for a good night out are heading off to Newcastle or Sunderland where they can pay the same prices for a much better night.
"There hasn't been enough investment over the years, and the smoking ban was the killer blow."
In Ocean Road, famous for its booming restaurant trade, some business chiefs say they've also been feeling the pinch.
One Bengali businessman, who didn't wish to be named, said his Indian restaurant was at its quietest for 15 years.
He said: "There have been lulls in business in the past, but its never been as bad as this.
"In the past, we'd expect to be full up at the weekend, but now we're lucky to half fill the place on a Friday night."
Mike Brumby, chairman of the South Tyneside committee of the North East Chamber of Commerce, said there had to be a better balance of bars for older people, and encouraged more investment from the private sector.
He said: "There are lots of bars and pubs aimed at the 18-25 age group, but there's not a lot for older people.
"Traditionally South Shields has always appealed to a very wide age group, and I think that appeal needs to be brought back.
"I'd love to see more private investment in the town centre. I know there are plans for the shopping area, but I hope this positive news eventually extends to the night-time economy."
He added: "I've had mixed messages about the smoking ban. People standing outside bars smoking find it easier to just walk across to the next bar, so there's more competition for business.
"But I also think the ban has exposed those bars and pubs which have under invested over the years, and haven't had any new ideas."
Beacon and Bents Coun John Wood said: "The council has been very flexible in granting extended licensing hours and allowing some outlets to put tables and chairs outside their premises, so we've done a lot to help.
"However, I think that it's a phase we're going through where people are heading to Sunderland and Newcastle for nights out, but these trends change and I'm hopeful that people will come back to South Shields again."
But taxi driver Daryn Saxon, 42, from Marsden, said the lack of a 'superclub' is the root cause of the problem.
He said: "The town no longer has the revellers it used to have.
"I think its because there are no super clubs in the area anymore, Newcastle and Sunderland have a lot of clubs and pubs and its buzzing." http://www.shieldsgazette.com
Smoking ban leads to drop in beer sales-Barrow BAN BLUES: Beer sales at The Ambrose in Barrow have dropped by 30 per cent since the smoking ban came into placeBEER sales have plummeted by more than 30 per cent at a Barrow pub hotel since the smoking ban.
Ambrose Hotel co-owner June Beard said people were buying alcohol from supermarkets and drinking and smoking at home instead of going to pubs and clubs.
But she said the Duke Street pub had stayed healthy because of its busy hotel side.
Mrs Beard, who runs the Ambrose Hotel, with co-owner Dave Carr, said: “In some cases it is just that people don’t want to come to the pub and then have to leave their drink and go and stand outside in the rain and cold for a smoke. They are staying at home with their carry outs and their friends are going round. A lot of people are getting together in people’s houses and if they want a smoke they can smoke in their homes.”
Mrs Beard said its eight bedrooms are frequently filled by contract workers and eight more rooms are set to be created.
She said: “The hotel side of the business is going superbly but the bar sales have been hit. I think the ban has hit every pub.”
Mrs Beard said customers who came in for a game of dominoes while smoking a pipe or cigarettes were among those who had stopped going to the Ambrose since last July’s smoking ban.
As hotels are allowed to have designated smoking bedrooms, the Ambrose is considering designating two bedrooms for smokers.
Mrs Beard,who enjoys a cigarette herself, said of the ban: “People say they will overturn it. It would be very nice if they did.
“At the end of the day the British people stood up against the poll tax but with the smoking ban they laid down and took it, that is my personal view.”
Other Furness pubs and clubs have suffered from the ban which has also contributed to the Engineers, and Vickerstown working men’s clubs in Barrow, planning to half their size and sell off the rest to survive.
Mike Fallon, chairman of the Barrow Licensed Victuallers’ Association said the edge of town and rural pubs had been hit hardest by the smoking ban because of the disruption and upheaval for middle-aged regulars.
Mr Fallon said: “Luckily it is a bit different in the town centre because young people tend to go from pub to pub and can have a smoke in between, and they are not as fussy as older people about having to nip outside for a smoke.”
PUB landlords have been warned that a “perfect storm” is threatening to blow their businesses away over the next three months.
Just weeks before the first anniversary of the ban on smoking in public places in Wales, one of the country’s leading brewers predicts an epidemic of pub closures is around the corner.
Philip Lay, retail director of the pub chain and brewer Brains, forecasts the end for many back-street boozers.
This week, figures released by the British Beer and Pub Association revealed that 27 pubs per week had been closing throughout the UK over the past year.
And Mr Lay said Wales was ready to feel the pinch because of a number of economic factors, including the smoking ban.
“We are going to see an increase in pub closures over the next three months as the different winds of the economy come to bear,” he said.
“We are having a tough year. In the more straightforward community areas, it’s a lot tougher.
“Trade is up to 20 per cent down in some parts of the South Wales Valleys. But there’s been an average five per cent decline.
“I absolutely connect this with the smoking ban.”
He said more smaller pubs would go bust as the effect of the ban combined with higher energy and food costs, the credit crunch and a renewed fear about the dangers of binge-drinking took hold.
“There are pub closures and businesses that are finding life much tougher,” said Mr Lay.
“The economy is tough and the weather last year was awful. We couldn’t have had a worse set of conditions. In the industry, it’s been called the perfect storm.”
Mr Lay said pubs and clubs who were able to serve food or splash out on a smoking shelter were better off.
“The bottom line is if you’ve got the opportunity to move into new areas, you can ride the storm. If it depends on the drinks market alone, it’s very challenging for everybody.”
Aneurin Jones, president of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association Wales and landlord of the Dolbadarn Hotel, Llanberis, North Wales, believed politicians had no appetite to help pubs and clubs because they were being identified as the source of binge drinkers and antisocial behaviour.
He added: “Pubs are closing faster in Wales than the rest of Britain; that’s the report we are having from our members.
“It’s particularly bad in the Valleys and North Wales, although we are geared up for the tourist trade here.
“There are a lot of factors such as high rent, people buying cheap alcohol from supermarkets and the smoking ban, which has hit hard.
“Turnover isn’t getting any higher, but our costs are going up all the time.
“Eventually, there won’t be any pubs left.”
John Price, chairman of Rhondda Cynon Taf Licensed Victuallers’ Association, said 11 pubs and clubs had closed in the region in the past six months alone, with more facing serious financial problems.
Those suffering most were back-street boozers with nowhere to build smoking shelters.
Mr Price, landlord of the Bush Hotel in Clydach Vale, Rhondda, said: “Before the end of the year, I estimate another 12 to 14 per cent of pubs in Rhondda Cynon Taf will close.”
Some pubs had resorted to only opening from Thursday to Sunday because it cost more to stay open than they made from customers, he added.
“I don’t open until 7pm every night,” said Mr Price. “It’s just not worth it. For example, I took £80 last night and it cost me £120 to open.
“It costs me £500 a month from my own pocket to keep the pub open.
“I was doing well last year and I’ve got a place where people can have a cigarette. Other places haven’t got anywhere.
“Before the ban was introduced, we were told the 30 per cent of smokers we would lose would be replaced by non-smokers. They never materialised.
“Christmas and New Year were terrible; the worst-ever in the Valleys. That’s directly down to smoking being banned.
“We’ve had some atrocious weather lately and I’ve got a lot of senior citizen customers. They can’t stand outside in the cold.”
In Welshpool, one couple who claim to be losing £1,000 a week, are hitting back with a campaign to introduce separate smoking rooms in pubs. Elaine Wright, 49, and Paul ‘Ali’Johnson, 46, who run The Pinewood Tavern, say they have collected 400 signatures on a petition in in two weeks.
Ali said: “The law doesn’t seem very clear, because a hotel can have smoking rooms.
“We are on a main street and have nowhere for people to smoke. Sometimes there are more outside the pub than inside.” http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk
Licensees speak out on threats to the ‘local’ By Gerran Grimshaw
LANDLORDS in city centre pubs have spoken out about the pressures they face from high beer prices, cheap supermarket booze and the smoking ban.
On Friday, The Press reported how Mark Waudby, the son of the Lord Mayor of York, Coun Irene Waudby, had filed for bankruptcy only 18 months after taking charge at The Oddfellows Arms, in Pocklington.
He blamed the smoking ban and high beer prices.
We spoke to landlords and managers at traditional pubs in York city centre about trade in the last 12 months.
Jim Hardie, landlord at the Blue Bell Inn, in Fossgate, said he had been hit by the smoking ban. But he said the high beer prices charged by pub companies were a bigger problem.
"We have quite a few regulars who are smokers," he said. "I'm a landlocked pub, with no yard at the back, so people have to stand out at the front. It has put some people off, definitely.
"And then you have supermarkets selling beers at 26p per pint - it's totally irresponsible.
"I appreciate the breweries have to put up prices, but because I'm owned by a beer company, the prices have gone up for me more so than they have for people in free houses.
"The pub companies are being greedy again - it's time the Government stood up to them.
"We have almost a monopoly situation with the big pub companies. They are deciding what's going on and it's disgusting."
Caroline Hickey, manager at The Lowther, in Cumberland Street, said the smoking ban had changed people's habits but they were still coming to the pub.
"I've not seen any difference in trade in the past 12 months," she said.
"I think our regulars are still coming in. It does mean people migrate more though.
"They'll go somewhere else and have a fag on the way."
She said takings in the cigarette machine were down, but business was pretty stable.
Kevin Pollitt, landlord at the Golden Fleece, in Pavement, said the smoking ban had not had a major effect on his pub, but high beer prices and increased drinking at home were.
"The ban hasn't really had an effect on us, most people seem to be in favour of it," he said.
"But the beer prices are just getting extortionate.
"What annoys me more than anything to be honest is that the supermarkets are buying the beer from the same people we are.
"But the breweries are selling to them a lot cheaper than they are to us. I know they buy in bulk, but still."
He said drinking habits were changing. "Things are changing," he said. "We're lucky in one respect that we're in a tourist city.
"But it's like when people talk about binge drinking. People are getting loaded up with cheap beer from the supermarkets before they're going into town - and we, the licensees, get the blame for it at the end of the day." http://www.yorkpress.co.uk
'GET PEOPLE IN OR TRADE WILL DIE - SIMPLE AS THAT' When the smoking ban came into force last year, health officials in Stoke-on-Trent must have breathed a collective sigh of relief.
They saw the new legislation as a vital tool in their battle to bring down some of the highest smoking rates in the country.
By contrast, pub managers from across North Staffordshire claimed the law would seriously damage their wealth - leading to the untimely death of scores of businesses.
Nine months on, and many of those same establishments are still trading.
But concern has been raised at the number of derelict pubs in the area, and the smoking ban is being blamed.
Sue Wainwright, aged 51, manager at the White Lion, in Honeywall, Penkhull, said: "I think that is totally down to the smoking ban.
"It hasn't affected us as much as I thought it would, but that's only because we made a really nice smoking area and beer garden.
"If we hadn't done that we would have been shut down like all the others you see boarded up around the city."
The Locomotive, in Heron Street, Heron Cross, has introduced a Nintendo Wii league, quiz nights and extra pool evenings in a bid to keep customers in the habit of visiting the pub during the week.
And landlady Angela Lear issued a stark warning to other managers - diversify or die.
"If it was down to me I'd go back to allowing smoking like a shot," the 39-year-old said.
"When I'm going around the city I see so many pubs that are shut or up for lease, and I'm sure a lot of that has to be down to the ban.
"At first it didn't really affect the actual custom that much. We'd get the same number of people in, but they'd spend half the night outside so the atmosphere went right down.
"After a couple of months, trade went down a bit as well and that was when we started introducing these new things.
"All this has brought people back in and things are getting better.
"But if pubs don't find different ways of getting people back in, a lot of them will shut - it's as simple as that."
With 32 per cent of over-16s smoking in Stoke-on-Trent, it is the single most preventable cause of ill health and death.
Nationally, 12 per cent of female and 23 per cent of male deaths are down to smoking - in Stoke-on-Trent it is between 25 and 27 per cent for women and 40 to 42 per cent for men.
These high rates sound alarm bells for the pub trade in North Staffordshire as well as for health leaders.
Industry experts believe establishments in areas with high smoking rates are likely to see a greater drop-off in trade as smokers opt to stay at home drinking cut-price alcohol bought at the supermarket.
Andrew Burnyeat represents Paramount Investments - the company selling the Man O'Clay, in Bentilee, and Talke's King William IV on behalf of Admiral Taverns.
He said: "The ban is bound to affect pubs in areas like Stoke-on-Trent more because of the relatively high smoking rates.
"Pubs that have improved their food offer or perhaps started showing sports or staging quizzes could draw people back in, but a lot aren't doing that."
But the smoking ban is not the only reason pub closures are accelerating nationally, according to Mr Burnyeat.
He highlights 2007's poor summer, customers tightening their belts as the economy slows and the high prices being offered to pub companies for premises on sites ripe for conversion to housing.
National hospitality property specialist, Fleurets, is advertising the lease or freehold of 14 pubs in Stoke-on-Trent - including the Railway Inn, in Longport, and the Coach and Horses, in Tunstall, as well as two in Newcastle.
Andrew Whelan, from Fleurets' Birmingham office, said: "It may well be the smoking ban has accelerated pubs shutting up shop a bit, but the residential development market has been the real driver.
"If there are a lot of people putting pubs up for sale, then we benefit - but that is only the case if there are buyers out there.
"In the last few years, residential property companies have picked up a lot of the pub sites."
Latest nationwide figures suggest bars are selling 50 million fewer pints of beer a month than they were a year ago, while beer sales dropped by almost 10 per cent during December - normally the busiest time of the year.
In the 1970s, 90 per cent of beer was drunk in pubs, compared with just 58 per cent today.
And on Friday, pub giant JD Wetherspoon reported falling profits in the six months to January 27.
Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin told the London Stock Exchange: "As anticipated, the introduction of the bans resulted in a strong growth in food sales but a decline in bar sales, which put pressure on margins and profits.
"We continue to believe that the smoking bans are to the long-term advantage of the trade.
Mervyn Edwards, of the Potteries Pub Preservation Group, pictured left, warned the combination of problems facing the hospitality industry would lead to further closures.
He said: "There must be scores of pubs on the market in Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle.
"As a result of all of these issues we are haemorrhaging pubs left right and centre." http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk
Margo seeks cut in sports channel fees MARGO MacDONALD wants satellite and cable sports channels to cut their subscription costs to help pubs which are struggling because of the smoking ban.
The Independent Lothians MSP said small public houses and bars had seen significant reductions in their takings since the ban was introduced in March 2006.
And now they face a hike in charges for screening football matches.
Ms MacDonald called on the Scottish Government to make representations to Setanta Sport Holdings and British Sky Broadcasting to reduce the cost of commercial satellite and cable sports subscriptions.
She said: "I've had several publicans approach me about this and they are from the smaller pubs who take the kind of approach we should encourage if we want to see sensible drinking.
"Already the smoking ban has affected their trade and if they are going to be hit with a double whammy from increased costs for showing football on pub screens, I fear a lot of them will go out of business."
But Public Health Minister Shona Robison said there was no robust evidence to show the smoking ban has had an adverse effect on sales in Scottish pubs. http://news.scotsman.com
Smoking ban takes its toll on JD Wetherspoon Pre-tax profits hit as ban kicks in
The smoking ban predictably hit pre-tax profits across JD Wetherspoon's 681 managed pubs, sliding 13 per cent in the first half of the group’s financial year.
In the six months to January 27 overall turnover grew 0.4 per cent to £440.2m, while like-for-like sales dipped two per cent.
Operating profits fell four per cent to £44.4m, operating margins dipped 0.5 per cent to 10.1 per cent, and pre-tax profits fell 13 per cent to £28.5m.
Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said: “The half year to January 27 2008 was a challenging period for the company and for the pub trade generally, since it followed smoking bans in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the second half of the last financial year.
“As anticipated, the introduction of the bans resulted in a strong growth in food sales but a decline in bar sales, which put pressure on margins and profits.
“In February, we continued to generate strong growth in food sales combined with a decline in bar sales.
“We expect second half sales trends to be broadly similar to those of the second quarter, to experience some cost pressures, and therefore have a slightly more cautious outlook for the second half of this financial year.”
Martin said he expected bar sales to recover as customers adjusted to life under the ban, but warned that "significant cost pressures" would continue.
The group was meanwhile seeing gross food sales worth £8,600 per pub per week, up from £7,900 last year. Coffee and tea sales were up 12 per cent, at 514,000 cups a week.
Wetherspoon also announced two new board appointments: Paul Harbottle, chief operating officer, and Su Cacioppo, a former bar shift manager and now personnel and legal director. http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?sectioncode=7&storycode=58911&c=1
Jean Banks who worked at the now closed Oddfellows Arms in Pocklington A BANKRUPT pub landlord has blamed the smoking ban and the cost of beer for helping to drive him out of business.
Former York councillor Mark Waudby, who is son of the current Lord Mayor of York Coun Irene Waudby, took over the lease of the Oddfellows Arms pub, in Union Street, Pocklington, with his wife, Samantha, in November 2006.
But yesterday he applied to declare himself bankrupt after leaving the pub at midnight on Wednesday of last week.
His comments about the failure of the pub have been echoed by Tony Sissons, landlord of the Three Cranes pub in the centre of York and president of York Licensed Victuallers' Association. He has said that for pubs at the moment, it is a case of "survival of the fittest".
Mr Waudby said: "As with so many pubs, it's down to the smoking ban. That's what really killed it for us. Who at this time of year wants to go outside and freeze when having a cigarette?
"And then there are the other factors like the fact that the price of beer has gone up and also there is a recession and people are going out less as they have less money."
Jean Banks, of Cherry Orchard Mews, Pocklington, who has worked at the pub for five years, said: "I've spoken to him on the telephone about what he is going to do regarding our wages, but he said he is going bankrupt and our names will be on the list of creditors."
Ms Banks said that including holiday pay she was owed about £430. She added: "As we all worked for Mr Waudby for the money and not for the love of it we are extremely distressed over the loss of this money."
Other pubs to have closed recently include the Phoenix, in George Street, York, and the Boardwalk, in Gowthorpe, Selby - which had only been open for a couple of years. The Press understands this closed on Wednesday evening with the landlady citing the smoking ban as the reason behind the closure.
Mr Sissons said many pubs faced a tough time for the foreseeable future.
He said: "I know some places that are struggling and a lot of it is down to the smoking ban and the pressures that are put on them with regard to the price of beer, which has to be passed on to customers."
He said independent landlords took on pubs in good faith when they had a healthy turnover, but times changed and, as well as beer, the price of gas and electricity had increased. These overheads also had to be paid for and, in many cases, had to be passed on to the customer. This meant the customer was unable to go out as much.
Mr Sissons said he thought there would be a lot more pub closures. He said: "The strong ones will ride it out, but I think a lot will struggle and won't survive. The pub companies know it's happening. Rents can be quite high and it's very hard to get them down once they're at a certain level. The price of beer is going up and up and there's not a lot you can do about it.
"It's survival of the fittest."
THE crisis facing the British pub industry has been further exacerbated by the increased popularity of drinking at home.
Supermarkets and off-licences are far cheaper than pubs and also offer a much wider range of drinks with beers and wines from all over the world on their shelves.
A spokesman for the British Beer And Pub Association confirmed more beer than ever was being drunk at home.
He said that in 1971, 90.4 per cent of all beer sales took place in a pub while in 2006 that figure had dropped to only 57.4 per cent.
He said: "The change in purchasing habits that has seen a movement away from the British pub and to the range of supermarket and off-licence offers is now hitting pubs hard. Indeed, this week it was revealed that every day almost four pubs close in Britain - a loss to communities across the country."
A spokesman for Scottish & Newcastle, which brews John Smith's bitter at Tadcaster, agreed fewer people were going out for a drink.
He said: "It's an industry-wide trend towards people drinking at home but, hopefully, the great British pub will continue to prosper for some time." http://www.yorkpress.co.uk
It is claimed many people are simply ignoring the fact that the Island will be banning smoking in enclosed spaces from March 30
STAFF and customers will be in for a shock when the smoking ban comes into force because businesses are not prepared, according to a Manx company providing smoking facilities. Sean Johnstone, one of the partners in smoking-facilities.com — set up six months ago to take advantage of the new legislation — said he knew of only a handful of places in the Island that would have facilities, such as ash bins and smoking shelters, in place by March 30.
Mr Johnstone said: 'Places are not prepared for the ban — most of them are ignoring it. Once people start getting fined they will find out what the ban means.
'They know the ban is going to happen but they don't know the implications. No one really appreciates how serious the ban is and how much it is going to affect businesses.'
However, pub landlords refuted claims they would not be ready in time. Andy Harris, landlord of a Heron and Brearley pub, the Woodbourne Hotel, in Alexander Drive, Douglas, said there would be ash bins outside the front and side doors of the pub by the time the ban comes in and there are plans to have a smoking shelter built outside, at the back of the pub.
He has also got posters ready to put up to remind customers they will not be allowed to smoke inside the pub.
He said that about 25 per cent of his customers smoke and they would be 'quite upset' by the ban.
'If there was a chance of turning one of my rooms into a smoking room, that could work easily,' he said. 'I think you would find the majority of people would prefer to have a smoking room (as opposed to a ban on smoking in public places].'
Earle Law, landlord of the Rovers Return, Church Street, Douglas, said there would be bins for cigarettes and ash and four wooden tables for outside. There were also plans to have 'umbrella-type coverings' outside the front of the pub.
He said all his staff and customers were against the ban and said sales would go down as a result of it.
Mr Law added: 'I think that if the ordinary working personworks all week and gets a bit of pleasure from having a cigarette and a drink then good luck to them.
'I think they are taking away people's privileges.'
Andy Hardy, general manager of the Slug and Lettuce, Wellington Street, Douglas, said they would have wall-mounted ash boxes but would not be able to provide smoking shelters because they do not own the land outside the bar.
He said staff who do not smoke were looking forward to going home not smelling of smoke, but those who did would have to go outside like everyone else.
Natalie Grib, manager of the Amber Lounge Bar, Loch Promenade, Douglas, said they would have ash bins along the railings outside the bar in time for the ban, but could do no more because they do not have an area outside for people to smoke.
She said the ban was going too far. It would be better if establishments that served food had non-smoking rooms. http://www.iomtoday.co.im
The Big Question: Why are so many pubs shutting down, and is their decline bad for society?
Why are we asking this now?
Because pub closures have escalated in the past year. According to the British Beer and Pubs Association, 27 pubs a week closed in 2007 – seven times faster than the previous year and 14 times faster than 2005. This means that four pubs a day are closing.
The figures have been released a week before The Budget. The Government has run out of money, and the pub industry is anxious that the Government does not put up beer taxes. "Beer sales in pubs – the backbone of the trade – are now at their lowest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s," says the BBPA. "This is all the more reason to freeze the duty on beer in this year's Budget."
Fellow trade body the Wine and Spirit Trade Association is furiously lobbying too, though research shows that the public does not mind taxation on drink very much. Still, there is little doubt that the pub, one of the archetypes of British life and one of its most cherished institutions, is under threat.
So are rural pubs the hardest hit?
No. Although the small community pub has been under pressure for years, the latest spate of closures has swerved like a whirlwind down the crowded, highly-competitive high street.
Smaller chains have been struggling to stay afloat. The London-based Massive Pub Company has put most of its pubs in administration. Regents Inns, the owner of the Walkabout Australian themed pubs, is looking to sell off some of its premises and has been in takeover talks. The Laurel Pub Company has put 94 pubs up for sale. Last month the large Greene King pub chain, which has a record of lifting profits year after year, reported flat trade at its community-based pubs.
