Pub Restaurant Advisor claims that with 50 pubs closing every week, Britain’s hard-up pub trade has become one of the most distressed sectors in the country.
Figures released by insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor showed a 95 per cent rise in ‘critical’ financial problems in the pub sector since the beginning of the year, making the sector the hardest hit of any type of business in the first quarter of the year.
The report classifies problems as ‘critical’ when a company has debt-related county court judgments (CCJ) worth £5,000 or more.
The numbers are stark when compared to the seven per cent fall on average in critical distress levels across all business sectors, and a significant drop among manufacturing firms.
“Duty increases are hitting pubs particularly badly, and a survey out today suggests in the first quarter of the year, the consumption in pubs was down by 57 million pints and at the same time there was an almost equivalent increase in terms of drinks spending in supermarkets,” Begbies Traynor’s Julie Palmer told Sky News.
The company said many pubs were unable to keep up with changes in consumer behaviour which has resulted in more at-home drinking by increasingly less affluent young people and students, once the staple customer of pubs and bars.
Ms Palmer added that industries that depend on discretionary spending from hard-pressed consumers were suffering, raising concerns that the withering of the local pub trade will have a damaging impact on Britain’s communities.
“The fact that pubs, football and other sports clubs are on their uppers is not simply a matter for economic concern, as these once thriving hubs of community and regional identity are part of the fabric of British society, and once lost can never be replaced,” chairman Ric Traynor said.
“Whether you view that as a good or a bad thing, the fact is it will, in the long term, change the character of the country as a whole and this should be recognised.”
First published by Coin-op Community
