Spirited fight: Landlords taking drastic measures to keep pubs open

FROM working 70-hour weeks due to staff cuts, to turning off lights and the heating on quiet days or shutting altogether, the cost of living crisis and rising energy bills are forcing pub landlords to take drastic measures in a bid to stay afloat.

A recent poll of British Beer and Pub Association members found 32% had reduced their hours due to high costs. Sobering research by the association shows 509 pubs shut down in 2023, and this year an estimated 750 could close by June.

Figures from Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) show in Greater Manchester alone, during the course of 2023, there were 24 permanent closures and 60 long-term closures.

Despite the mounting challenges, publicans across Rochdale are standing fast, driven by a dogged passion to keep the pub industry alive for the sake of their communities.

It’s within their establishments’ walls that families hold and make memories, from celebrating marriages to comforting one another at a wake. To some customers going for a pint and a chat at their local pub is a lifeline.

For pub chef Tom Mcneeney, of The Oxford pub in Rochdale, running a pub is in his blood. His parents have run boozers their whole lives and his grandparents before them, but it’s beginning to feel ‘almost impossible’.

The Oxford pub, which has been run by Tom’s family for 11 years, initially cut its opening hours postcovid and has been forced to reduce them again amid spiralling energy costs after ‘tough conversations’ with regulars.

The 35-year-old said: “We were staying open for the traditional drinker who comes in later and tends to be an older fella but we were finding our least profitable hours were the latest ones.

“Now on a Friday and Saturday we’re closing last orders at 10pm. We found when the pub’s full we’re not heating it as much but at the end of the evening we had two staff on, we’re keeping the heating on, the music and lights to ensure those gents were getting the same experience, but because of that we were losing money.

“There’s an old-school train of thought that it’s £4 a pint so of course you’re making money but when you run the numbers it’s pence.

“If we were full of tables full of people at last orders drinking bottles of wine or having coffee then the conversation might be different, but the reality is we were staying open late to make a brewery money and not ourselves,” he said.

Tom says the pub makes ‘very little money’ from beer due to being brewery tied.

He said in recent months beer prices have gone up, energy prices have soared, business rates have risen, the pub’s rent is increasing, and now the living wage has gone up the business is going to have to find an extra several thousand to cover staff pay.

“It’s always been hard to run a pub but in this economy it feels almost impossible at times. There’s an epidemic of pubs and restaurants shutting.

“It’s not just energy costs that are causing pubs to close early. For us it made sense to go back to closing in the afternoons and earlier in the evening because you flip the light switch and the energy bill stops going up but that doesn’t work with council tax going up, or business rates, or the rent. There are price rises left right and centre. It’s a struggle.”

Tom said when energy prices rose last year it was ‘terrifying’ and the pub closed for several hours during the afternoon with the lights off in a desperate bid to save money.

“In winter we turned the lights on two minutes before we opened and had our lunch in the dark. I cannot stress enough how awful it was. We tweaked the recipes so we weren’t using as much gas. We used to use the fireplaces to keep it warm but then the price of logs went through the roof,” he said.

Nick Nugent, the landlord of the Hare and Hounds in Bamford, has similarly kept his pub open seven days a week but has also seen a change in customer’s habits.

“The days of your pub being packed on a Friday and Saturday night are long gone. We still get people coming in then but not to the extent they did 10 years ago,” he said.

Nick, 49, who has run the pub for 19 years, said the pub has now become a ‘food led pub’ and he has no plans to change the opening hours so customers always ‘know where they stand’.

“We are still very much a community pub and we still want to attract the drinkers where we can”, he said.

Changes he has made, however, include removing the pub’s gas fire and getting energy efficient light bulbs after his energy bills tripled.

“It is difficult to invest money back into the pub when you’re just paying your wages and you’re just paying your bills. Really when you’re charging people £5 a pint they are expecting to be treated to a nice atmosphere and for that you need to invest in the pub,” he said.

‘The days of your pub being packed on a Friday and Saturday night are long gone’ Nick Nugent (right), Hare and Hounds, Bamford ‘In this economy it feels almost impossible to run a pub at times’ Tom Mcneeney (right), The Oxford