Another one bites the dust!

[Dieseljockey]

Just lately in my travels I've seen a number of pubs that have gone to the wall..
Now I know that times are hard at the moment...but I saw this one the other day.

The thing that troubles me is the banner...it offers stuff like free rent for 6mts..£600 of beer...but if this pub has gone down once..
how can you be certain that it won't do the same again.

Best of luck to anyone who takes it on... :clap:

 

[31bb3]

Wheres that mate ????
What with the price of beer going up i think pubs are a dying trade

 

[evanvine]

What with the price of beer going up i think pubs are a dying trade

They don't seem to understand that it is better to sell 3 at a penny profit, than 1 tuppence profit!

 

[Dieseljockey]

Wheres that mate ????
What with the price of beer going up i think pubs are a dying trade

From Halesowen on the A4099 up the hill to the crossroads of Beeches Rd & Cockshed Lane. :thumb: I think I saw a Thwaites board on it

 

[Mark1964]

Sad but true the full country will be stuffed before long. Home brewing is the way forward cheaper better

 

[BigYin]

Seeing that is very sad, but a fact of life at the moment - pubs no longer form the cornerstone of our social life as they for many did a hundred years ago. Over the years as people have moved more, and drink driving has been (rightly) almost eradicated, the social function that pubs were once the kings of has evaporated.

Now they have to much smarter how they run their business. 20 years ago I was told by a frind's mum who ran a pub and guesthouse, that for putting clean sheets on a bed and providing a pit of tea and some toast in the morning, she could make more profit over one overnight guest in one night than one regular drinking 3 or 4 pints in her bar every night for a month :shock:

Sad truth is, even if you can make 10 pence profit on one pint, you have to sell a LOT of pints just to cover costs :hmm:

DESPITE that, when I see a closed pub, I wonder if it has enough space in the back to set up a micro brewery.... :whistle:

 

[Kyral210]

It is sad, but there are 3 problems:

1) Society changes. It used to be the pub WAS the entertainment. It was where you went and they sold beer. You drank beer because that was all there was, beer, beer or gin.

2) Price. There is an amazing pub 20 minutes walk from me, and their drinks selection is an Aladdin's Cave of wonders. However, its just too expensive. £3 + per pint and very soon your few Friday evening drinks becomes more expensive than brewing 40 pints at home! Ok, most people don't brew at home, but with good bottled ale at £1.50 per bottle when on offer (and there always is one), the maths makes sense when you drink at home.

3) A lot of people don't want stuffy old pubs, they want sexy vodka bars! Even more they don't want stuffy new pubs trying to be stuffy old pubs! They don't want to meet Jeff, the 7' giant with a grizzled beard and gut to match. I have to admit, I am one of them...

 

[dennisking]

Drove to my sons today in east London, can`t believe how many closed pubs we passed, a lot looked like good traditional locals, tragic.

 

[31bb3]

How ;long till the sodding politicians realise homebrewing is cheaper and they sting us with some form of duty :twisted:

 

[Vindiv8]

How ;long till the sodding politicians realise homebrewing is cheaper and they sting us with some form of duty :twisted:

I can see that happening with kits, but I can't see how they could do it with AG. Unless they make it illegal like distillation.

 

[Moley]

How ;long till the sodding politicians realise homebrewing is cheaper and they sting us with some form of duty :twisted:

I can see that happening with kits, but I can't see how they could do it with AG. Unless they make it illegal like distillation.

And make us declare why we are buying sugar and fruit juices? :wha:
Make it a criminal offence to pick elderberries? :nono:

 

[alanbamber123]

Its the brewerys fualt in most cases. They need to sell the beer cheaper. Samual Smith has got it right. Sell it cheep and people buy it. There are non of there pubs shutting.

 

[graysalchemy]

My business relies on a healthy pub trade. I supply artwork mirrors and chalk boards etc. When the smoking ban came in that was the death knell for a lot of community pubs. The only way pubs can survive in general is to offer food as the main attraction except where you get a good real ale pub in an affluent area, but these sadly are few and far between.

I work mainly for M&B and when the sh*t hit the fan 18months ago it was quite catastrophic. All budgets for refurbishment were put on hold and still have not been released to levals we enjoyed before. Most of these pubs are now dry lead houses (food) with a lot of the community brands being converted were possible to eating houses.

Some Pub co's notably enterprise inns and Punch had a lot of wet lead community pubs on their books which just cannot compete in todays market place due to the reasons above.

Another problem with the pub industry is the way the tied pub lease is structured. In a lot of cases as a pub starts to do well the rent increases and beer prices go up. Sadly the reason for this is the Model under which pub co's were set up in the 90's. They were heavily financed and these loans need to be paid back and unfortunately the poor mug who is conned into taking up a lease and invest his life savings is the one paying for it all. It has happened many a time before and will continue, until legislation stops it or no one is left to want to take up a pub.

As for paying duty on homebrew ingredients we already are with VAT, you don't pay VAT of food but you do on grain for brewing. :whistle: :whistle: However spare a thought to homebrewers in Germany and Poland were there is a limit of 200L per household per year of beer before it is taxed. Bit close to home that with the EU etc. :hmm: :hmm:

 

[Dieseljockey]

Germany and Poland were there is a limit of 200L per household per year of beer before it is taxed. Bit close to home that with the EU etc.

Ye gods... :nono: lets hope the morons in power don't get hold of that bit of info

 

[graysalchemy]

It was the conservatives who removed the need for a brewing Licence and duty for home brew back in 1963. Reginald Maudling the then Chancellor of the Exchequer for Heaths Government removed it, it was one of the many popular moves he made in the budget. I always thought it was a labour administration who removed it to appease the working class man.

Now Osbourne is certainly a different man and it wouldn't surprise me if Home brewing became a national sport that they would tax it. :hmm: :hmm:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Same here with the boozers
This was nice pub in a good area but sadly the land was worth more for houses so Punch Taverns sold it to a local builder who is squeezing in as many plots as possible..

 

[alanbamber123]

Landlords like that should not be aloud to work

 

[graysalchemy]

Same here with the boozers
This was nice pub in a good area but sadly the land was worth more for houses so Punch Taverns sold it to a local builder who is squeezing in as many plots as possible..

Punch Taverns says it all. They were quite badly hit with the recession and smoking ban, their estate was to wet led and as a result are selling of properties. They also don't want anyone to make a success of a pub if they have failed. Many are being sold with covenants which prevent them from ever being a pub again.

 

[jonewer]

Beer at pubs is too expensive.

Thats the reason they are closing.

Who can really afford to go to the pub and have a couple of pints a few times a week (and maybe a dozen on saturday!) when the average price of a pint has now topped £3?

 

[unclepumble]

Its the brewerys fualt in most cases. They need to sell the beer cheaper. Samual Smith has got it right. Sell it cheep and people buy it. There are non of there pubs shutting.

Quite wrong i am afraid, Its the Governments fault, The monopolies screwed it all up when they broke the big brewers up, & M&B, Punch taverns etc etc were all formed off the back of it, The Brewers make bugger all compared to what money goes into the business, that's why the big brewers are closing breweries as fast if not faster than the pubs are closing, leeds, bedford, closed reading closed northampton closing soon I believe, all big breweries which will not reopen.

Sam Smiths can probably sell cheaper as they don't market their beers nationally and sell to pubs they own themselves, therefore they can see a profit.

The big brewers don't have their own pubs any more therefore they are restricted to price, The pub company's want what little profit there is and use their buying power to nail down the brewers on price, what's left then is the supermarket chains and they want stuff at cost, the way the market is moving there will be very few pubs and breweries left in 20 years time.

The Biggest winner in brewing is the treasury who take more than half the sale price of a brewers product in duty and VAT, the brewer has to stand all the marketing, legislation, utilities, wages transport costs etc etc etc etc, leaving not a lot of profit, the pub companies make much more per pint than the big brewers.

The smaller micros don't pay quite so much as the big boys to give them a chance, but beer is a hard game not a highly profitable one that some think it is.

There is much more profit in cider than beer, its cheaper to produce (no boiling etc) and there is far less duty on it, (for now) oh and you can make and sell 70Hectolitres a year as a private individual without registering to the HMRC, unlike beer.

UP