A PINT OF AIL
Price tops £8 for first time & it’ll get worse
THE price of a pint of beer has hit £8 for the first time ever.
The whopping cost has sparked fears more drinkers will shun struggling pubs and choose to sup at home instead.
The £8 barrier was breached in London, where a pint has hit a thirsty £8.06.
In contrast, the cheapest pint costs just £1.79 in Lancashire.
The new high means the cost of a pint of beer is up more than 70% since 2008, when it reached an average of £2.30.
That has now risen to £3.95 this year, on the back of soaring ingredient costs, research by hospitality industry consultancy CGA showed.
And though the British Beer and Pub Association predicts that millions of pints will be sold during the course of the Jubilee weekend, it fears sales will then slump dramatically.
Prices have shot up since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is a global supplier of grain – including wheat and barley, two of the main ingredients used to make beer.
Analysts believe costs could surge by 70% this year in a “realistic worst case scenario”.
Clive Watson, chairman of City Pub Group – which operates 41 venues in London and the South – said the price of ingredients had already risen by 10%.
He added that “wage inflation is probably 7% and electricity inflation is 100%, so that blended cost price probably puts the price of a pint of beer up 12 to 13%”.
But he said that his company would hold its prices this year following the ending of Covid-19 restrictions, and added: “We just want people to go back to the pub.”
Brewer Marston’s said it had increased its prices by about 8% in March.
And rival Greene King has put up the cost of beer by an average of 5p a pint.