The cost of a pint of beer must rise to up to £20 (~$23) if British pubs are to stay in business this winter, an industry bigwig has said.
UK pubs will only be able to stay in business if customers are forced to pay up to £20 (~$23) a pint, an industry expert has said, begging the government to “start stepping in and doing something”.
Warnings have already abounded about the threat the current energy crisis poses to UK bars and restaurants, with reports indicating that small businesses across the UK are struggling to even sign new energy contracts due to suppliers fearing that their customers simply will not be able to pay up when the time comes.
Such fears do not seem to be at all unfounded, with Tom Stainer, the Chief Executive of real ale campaign group CAMRA, telling the Daily Star tabloid on Sunday that the only way pubs will be able to pay their energy bills this year is by raising the cost of a pint to between £15 to £20 (~$17 to ~$23).
“We’re seeing pubs where their energy costs are going up by not just a little bit — we’re talking 500 per cent to 600 per cent,” Stainer reportedly told the publication, emphasising that his industry was now in a “real crisis”.
“[H]ow much would 500% be on a £5 pint?” he went on to ask. “[Y]ou’re talking ridiculous amounts of money, 15 or 20 quid for a pint.”
Despite such a price rise being financially needed by the industry however, Stainer went on to say that said increase would have been impossible even before the cost of living crisis, and would be outright rejected by would-be customers.
“What you can say with surety is you can’t possibly pass on these energy increases and you can’t increase the pint by 500 per cent,” he said. “You’d be talking about pounds of pounds added on to the average cost per pint — and we already know because we did a survey this summer that more than 50% of the British public now believe the cost of a pint is already unaffordable.”
“It just isn’t viable for pubs to pass [price hikes this big] on to consumers because people wouldn’t come drink at pubs anyway,” he reportedly added.
Stainer went on to conclude that British publicans now require the UK government to step in and address rising costs of energy bills for the industry, saying that without such intervention, the industry would be badly damaged by the ongoing crisis.
Such a call to action echoes that given by others in the pub business last week, with six major players in the industry warning the government that many small businesses simply will not be able to absorb the increased costs.
“While the government has introduced measures to help households cope with this spike in prices, businesses are having to face this alone, and it is only going to get worse come the autumn,” one chief executive, Nick Mackenzie of the Greene King group, reportedly said.
“Without immediate government intervention to support the sector, we could face the prospect of pubs being unable to pay their bills, jobs being lost and beloved locals across the country forced to close their doors,” he went on to say.
Pubs are not the only traditional British industry that has been put under existential threat by energy bills, with the likes of traditional fish and chip shops also seen as facing “extinction” due to the increasing cost of energy, as well as raw materials needed to make the traditional dish.
Other industries are also feeling the pinch as well, with many energy providers even refusing to issue contracts to new business customers for fear that they will go under before having the chance to pay the companies back.
Small to medium enterprises who are lucky enough to be offered a new contract meanwhile are being expected to pay large lump sums up front, up to the tune of £10,000 (~$12,000), as insurance to make sure the energy companies get their cut.
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