County losing two pubs a month
Monday 12th January 2009, 6:30PM GMT.
Pubs in Shropshire are closing at a rate of two a month, new figures show.
Data produced exclusively for the Shropshire Star by CGA Strategy Ltd, a leading trade research and consultancy company, reveal that 17 pubs shut their doors in just nine months across the county.
The credit crunch and cheap booze in the supermakets – as well as high rents on premises – are blamed as major reasons for the losses.
Experts from CGA, which provides statistics for The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), predict the current rate of closures would have probably pushed that figure closer to 23 pubs by the end of the year.
It is a bitter blow to publicans who were already left reeling from tougher licensing laws and restrictions imposed by the Government the previous year.
Roger Clutterbuck, director of Pub Locums of Shrewsbury, a company that provides relief managers to the pub trade, today called for struggling pubs to diversify into areas such as dry cleaning and cake selling in a desperate bid to survive.
The figures from CGA, which cover a period between December 2007 and September 2008 show that there were a total of 685 pubs across the county.
This number had dropped from 702 since December 2007 and from 719 the previous year – a total loss of 34 pubs in less than two years.
Graham Pitts, from CGA Strategy, said that despite the number of closures the county was still just below the UK average for closures.
He said: “The figures for Shropshire are in line with the Great Britain picture and it looks like two per month are closing in the county.”
Mr Clutterbuck said that although the credit crunch meant people were often cutting down on drinks at the pub, factors such as supermarkets undercutting them and some pub chains charging high rent rates to licensees were also to blame.
He said pub licensees, especially those in rural areas, must diversify if they are to survive in the future.
He said: “In rural counties the pub is the hub of the village. Some councils are actually supporting this and helping people to set up things like a post office in the pub if it was about to be closed down.
“Others are introducing a small convenience store or cake shop and some are putting dry cleaning services in so people don’t have to go into town.”
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More people out of owrk. The supine government should do something to stop this decline.
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Greedy breweries, governments, lack of investment in some drab dirty pubs have brought it upon themselves. Lager £22 a gallon. and we thought petrol was expensive!
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I do not believe for one minute the pub in 2009 is the hub of a village, (village dozen click)yes.
Most people go to the pub fri/sat or xmas .Some one is being greedy WHO? it isnt the poor tennant landlord.
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I blame the landlords for being spineless.
When will UK publicans ignore this stupid smoking ban?
If they all ignored it they would get their trade back, after all, what the hell do government ministers know about running a pub?
If none smokers don’t like it let ‘em go to a Macdonalds (which is what pubs have become)
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The Smoking ban is not the real reason that pubs are closing. Smokers still go, hence all the smoking shelters outside. There are many reasons why pubs are in decline, here are a few.
Cheap Supermarket Booze. If this was the case how come they can sell it so cheaply? Surely they get it from the same breweries as pubs do. If the breweries weren’t so greedy in their own managed pubs and set the prices of draught beer so high, then they would sell at the same price. Let’s be fair, a whisky bottle produces around 30 measures. At £2 a shot that’s £60 a bottle for a cost to the pub of around £6. They could even buy it at a supermarket for £12 and still make £48 per bottle profit.
Smoking. Smokers still go to the pub. If the ban has stopped them then it’s their fault, not the non-smokers, if they don’t go. Surely any smoker can go an hour or two without a fag. I think the shelters have exagerated smoking and people smoke more than ever they used to.
Alternatives: There is so much alternaticve entertainment available today, 800 channels on TV, DVD’s, Videos, computer games, Nintendo WII and Gameboy, Cinema’s, cheap eating out, and so on. When I satrted drinking in 1965 the pub was the hub of the community, catering for young and old. Now the old can’t afford to go there and the young get drunk and aggressive. If I and my wife go to the local for a simple night out it will cost around £35 for 5 drinks each and £5 for taxis. How many people can afford to spend that kind of money three or four times a week? Not me, for one.
Home drinking: Personally that’s what I do. A bottle of wine for £5, the company of my wife and friends, a snack when I want one, and no yobs. Great.
Just to cap it all this wonderful government that we have is in the process of introducing a new law for pubs. They will bneed to display Government health Warnings about drinking, restrict wine and spirit glasses to 125 Mls and send all staff on compulsory training. The average cost toa pub is estimated at £11,430 a year (every year). There are 39 pubs a month closing at present. Watch that shoot up. Thanks Gordon!
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Richard, you make some valid points, however, haven’t supermarkets always sold cheap booze?
Home entertainment, videos etc have been around for years.
The only thing that has changed recently is the smoking ban.
And yes, I can go an hour or two without a smoke, but I’m an adult, so why should I? I enjoy a pint with a fag.
The real answer would have been the Spanish one, pubs for non-smokers and pubs for smokers, everyone would have been happy.
Roy
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