Some welcome news for Britain’s beleaguered pubs market came yesterday with the announcement by Heineken that it will reopen 62 pubs that had been closed down.
The Category C machine operators will welcome the news that the brewing giant will also invest £39m in refurbishing hundreds of sites across the country. The Star Pubs & Bars chain’s support from Heineken will see around 1,000 additional jobs created.
Statistics show that in the past 22 years pubs have been closing their doors at the rate of 500 a year (stats from the British Beer and Pub Association), most recently through the pandemic and a downturn in spending because of the cost of living crisis.
In all, Star Pubs & Bars operates 2,400 pubs, down 300 from those in business five years ago. The renovation programme will see over 600 venues upgraded. Since the start of last year, Heineken has reopened 156 pubs.
Other factors have damaged the pub business in recent years including the Russian invasion of the Ukraine that saw the cost of grain energy, with sources showing that the average cost of a pint of lager up to £4.71 from £3.76 in February of 2020.
The total number of pubs in the UK currently stands at 45,350. In 2014 it was 52,500.
