10/10/2023
Very glad we are not in catering now... Really feel for those still in business and struggling with all the price increases.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/08/its-soul-destroying-to-have-one-customer-on-a-saturday-is-the-party-over-for-the-uks-pubs-and-clubs
“Even those that seem to be thriving are hiding personal costs. Kirstin Reynolds and her husband run the Ilchester Arms in Symondsbury, a popular gastropub in a pretty west Dorset village that has a regular stream of visitors, often for weddings.
The Ilchester was in the top 8% of pubs tied to the local brewer in terms of growth and performance, she said, but the couple were working 80-hour weeks even though they shut from 5pm on Sunday until Wednesday afternoons. Opening longer would mean more hours and they would lose money.
“We’re burnt out,” she said. “When we took on the pub [in April 2021] we thought the business would grow and we could fully staff and it and run seven days a week.”
They are nominally open until 10pm but often start putting chairs on tables at 9pm, an hour after the kitchen shuts. Occasionally wedding guests arrive on a Friday night, intending to have a grand evening the night before the big day. “They expect to see a bar full of locals. ‘Where are they?’ Yeah – they’re staying in all their houses.”
The few villagers that have not been priced out by holiday homes do value the pub, but most turn up at 5pm or 6pm and go home for dinner. “They’re very supportive but I’m not sure anyone has a full enough understanding of what it takes to run a pub at the moment.”
For one thing, it takes an ability to pay eye-watering energy bills, which, unlike domestic supplies, are not capped. Reynolds was lucky enough to get a deal before the crisis hit, but still had a 45% price increase this year. They turn off all the fridges at night and tried to install solar panels on the roof of a south-facing barn that would have covered a third of their energy costs. But a promised grant to cover some of the £18,000 cost never materialised because the scheme relied on EU’s European regional development fund, and that was not replaced by the government after Brexit, she said.
At least they serve food. Pubs that only serve drinks are struggling harder: “We charge £6.50 for a pint and we don’t make anywhere near our margin. They’d probably have to charge £9.50.”
Other licensees have grim tales of price rises. Boxes of cod jumped from £50 to £90 overnight, according to Jo Loring of the Cosy Dove in Newcastle. A lamb shank meal that would have cost £15.30 in 2019 would now need to be £28.80 to make the same profit margin. Cooking oil is up. Alcohol duty cuts to beer had not been passed on, while wine and spirit costs had risen, she said. If business rates go up, “for many pubs this will be the last straw”.”
Reeling from Brexit, Covid and soaring energy costs, UK pubs and clubs are calling time on opening all week. Can they survive?
Stunning country house manor available to hire in the picturesque village of Chettle in North Dorset
