Six British pubs are closing each day. Pubs, the backbone of the UK street market in AWP machines, are in deep trouble. The British beer and Pub Association - which has a meeting next week at the Ibis Hotel during the IGX show - has gone on record with the statistic that 39 pubs are closing each week on average. This is a rate 20 times higher than three years ago.
In the first half of last year, the rate was 36 each week. In 2008 1,973 pubs were shut down, against 1,409 in the previous year.
Against a background of Government concern at too much drinking, pubs, often seen as less culpable than cheap beer in supermarkets and night clubs, are losing out. New Government legislation to curb promotions in drinking establishments may cost the pubs industry dearly. Marginal pubs in the suburbs may be the victims. In recent years as many as 44,000 jobs have been lost as a result of pub closures.
This news comes as shares in pub operators Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns crash as Britain’s second multi-billion pound bank bail-out renews concerns over the huge debt carried by the two operators in terms of numbers of outlets.
Shares in Enterprise Inns, which has net debt of 33.7bn, including a five-year bank facility of £1bn which expires in May 2011, fell as much as 25 per cent.
Punch Taverns, which has debt of just over £4.3bn, shed as much as 17 per cent.
