Pub owner Marston’s serves smaller menus as costs surge

PUB chains are being forced to slash the size of menus as they battle spiralling food prices.

Marston’s, which operates more than 1,500 pubs and bars, said it had overhauled its menus that had featured “too many dishes and too many ingredients” as part of efforts to cope with sky-high costs. Andrew Andrea, chief executive, said menu options had been slashed in half at some pubs, with multiple pasta dishes, for example, being replaced by one option.

He said this helped the company save money while axing unpopular dishes.

Mr Andrea added: “In our menu relaunch the things we took off the menu were things that customers weren’t buying or didn’t like.”

Marston’s has also scrapped two-forone offers and did not rule out further price rises after revealing in March that it had raised pint prices by between 20p and 45p. In addition to rising food and energy costs, pub chains are struggling with the return of VAT levels to 20pc after they were reduced to 5pc during the pandemic. Mr Andrea said the company had raised its own food prices above the VAT reversion and had increased drinks prices by around 8pc.

He said: “We’ve had very little kickback from customers on it. I think customers were expecting it given the noise around inflation.”

Separately, Mitchells & Butlers, which owns All Bar One and Harvester, said it had raised prices by around 3pc and warned it could increase prices further later this year.

Phil Urban, chief executive, said: “It’s a bit early to work out what inflation is doing to household budgets.”

Mitchells & Butlers said its own costs had surged with its utility bills having almost doubled on pre-pandemic levels. Mr Urban said food costs were unlikely to drop back down “until the war [in Ukraine] resolves”.

Premier Foods, the owner of Mr Kipling and Sharwood’s, said yesterday that it expected costs to go higher and would offset it by raising prices. Alex Whitehouse, chief executive, said food price inflation “for some families, sadly, is going to be really tough”.