Increased running costs more worrying than supermarket prices for UK publicans
Electricity bills topped the list of cost increases over the past year cited by 75 per cent of publicans followed by gas bills at 57 per cent and business rates at 33 per cent.
Nevertheless, 35 per cent of them plan to invest over £100,000 in their businesses in 2012 while only 12 per cent expect to invest less than £1,000 into their premises this year.
Some 54 per cent of them stated that increases to running costs in business were of ‘major concern’, even more so than supermarket prices.
When asked to compare their most recent tax year against the previous one, over half (53 per cent) said they made less money while just one-third made more.
Marginal turnover improvements resulted from the better Summer and the royal wedding for British pubs last year but 37 per cent still reported a drop in turnover, down four percentage points from the 41 per cent figure in 2010. 45 per cent recorded an improvement in turnover last year.
At 14 per cent the numbers of those intending to leave the trade this year has also declined marginally.
Those serving food at most – if not all – times of the day have grown from 78 per cent a year ago to 87 per cent this year thus emphasising the importance of food as part of their business.
Some 38 per cent of publicans still claim that beer accounts for 60 per cent or more of turnover and the same percentage also claimed that beer is growing in importance in their outlets.
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