Publicans deny price fix as pints go up 10p

April 1999

Wexford’s vintners have denied accusations of price-fixing after a number of publicans slapped up to 10p onto the price of a pint.

Several callers to this newspaper said prices had risen suddenly by as much as 10p a pint in some town pubs, particularly those at the yuppie end of the market.

A price rise recently imposed by brewers accounts for 2p on a pint, but most of any extra price rises are those set by individual publicans.

John Gaynor, Wexford District Chairman of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, strongly denied there was any price fixing.

‘ There is no collusion. If individual pubs put up prices by more than the brewers’ price rise, that is a matter for them,’ Mr Gaynor told this newspaper.

‘I categorically refute any allegation that there has been price fixing. No pub in Wexford is told what to charge.’

He agreed however that pub owners could basically charge what they wanted for a pint and it was a matter of personal choice whether customers were prepared to pay what was being asked.

In some parts of Wexford, a pint can be bought for £2.05, compared to £2.45 at the other end of the market.

One Wexford publican said he was attracting new customers from a next door pub which had just added 7p to a pint. His prices had risen by just 2p.

Another said suggestions of price fixing were fiction, adding that some publicans had simply rounded off prices to make life easier.

‘ These days, people don’t care about the odd couple of pence,’ he said, adding that a pint had risen by 7p to £2.05 in his bar.