Due to the cost of living problem, pubs are being forced to “hibernate” for the winter in an effort to reduce increasing electricity, food, and labor costs.
In an innovative attempt to combat rising expenses, landlords all across the UK are calling last orders as early as 9 p.m., serving meals for just three hours each day, and in some cases, utilizing candlelight.
However, other bars are being forced to take more drastic steps and have been forced to lock their doors until spring, skipping the typically popular holiday season.
The White Hart Inn’s landlady, Stella Coulthurst, of Hamstead Marshall, Berkshire, will shut her establishment the next week and won’t reopen until the spring since her power bill increased by three times to £17,500 in the last three months alone.
Despite fighting to stay open during the winter, Ms. Coulthurst said she was forced to use her funds to make ends meet each month.
Due to the substantial rise in energy prices, landlords now have to make the difficult decision of either closing their doors permanently or passing the additional weight onto devoted tenants who are already trying to keep up with growing living expenses.
The Times quoted Ms. Coulthurst, 61, as saying: “During the summer we worked really hard but we couldn’t keep up with the price increases, and at the end of every month, when we paid everyone, we realized we had to pay out of our savings.”
The government will only allow the price of power to double, she said. I just don’t have the margins to absorb what in any other situation would be perceived as a massive price increase since my winter expense is treble that.
The tenacious landlord said she has not “thrown up the towel,” but she noted that if oil and gas costs stay at their present, unprofitable level, she would find it difficult to reopen after the winter season.
Beginning on October 1, the government set a ceiling on the wholesale cost of energy for companies. The “supported wholesale price” for electricity is set at roughly £211 per megawatt hour (MWh), while for gas, it is around £75.
This is comparable to the ceiling on residential energy bills that will be established this October and will last for two years, and it is about half what the wholesale price on the open market was anticipated to be.
However, since the Energy Bill Relief Scheme is only in effect until March, pubs are worried that expenses may increase beyond that month and put their businesses at additional danger.
Pubs have seen a decline in business as a result of consumers’ need to make expenditure cuts due to their own skyrocketing household expenses.
Pubs have seen a decline in business as a result of clients’ mounting household expenses due to the cost of living problem.
Ms. Coulthurst, who bought the bar in 2011, said she was forced to make personnel reductions.
Her tavern, which is close to the Highclere Castle set from Downton Abbey, operates on a mix of oil, gas, logs, and electricity.
The majority of my people will easily transition to other positions, but there are one or two for whom it is their only option, she said. Since she has an adult son who is severely challenged, our housekeeper finds being housekeeper to be wonderful.
She puts in a full half-day at work, and when her kid gets home from daycare, she is there to take care of him.
As the only employer in Hamstead Marshall, she won’t be able to find a replacement for that position. How would she manage, being a nice mother who works hard for her family? I have no idea how she’ll manage it.
Owners David and Ann Palmer of the New Castle Bistro in Kewstoke, Somerset, have shut down their establishment for the winter after seeing a 400% increase in their energy costs.
As a result of the threat of falling “behind” on its obligations if it did not take severe measures, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire’s independent riverside bar The Boathouse has also closed its doors until spring.
Another independent bar in Tewkesbury, The Lower Lode Inn, is now open with less hours but may decide to shut for the season as well.
The bar “can’t deal” with rising costs, according to Samantha Snape, who has been managing it for over 20 years.
During what would typically be one of the busiest times of the year, British Beer and Pub Association chief executive Emma McClarkin said pubs are fighting “totally out of control” prices.
Despite government involvement on energy costs for companies, many pubs are still unsure about their ability to keep the lights on this winter, she said. “The strains on our pubs and breweries at the moment are significant,” she said.
Many people were relieved by the cap, but even with the reduction, expenses are still high and prices for everything else in our supply chain are also rising.
In order to maintain their businesses, pubs have had to make difficult decisions over the past few months. Many have changed to shorter hours, but closing entirely for the winter shows just how out of control the cost of doing business has become for our industry, especially since it would typically be one of the most profitable times of the year.
We are in serious danger of losing these enterprises, along with the employment and lives they support, even though they are at the center of their communities in villages, towns, and cities all throughout the nation.
“We need the Chancellor to act before Winter really starts to bite for our brewers, pubs, and the customers and communities they serve,” the letter reads. “Waiting until a February budget to reduce the cost of doing business could be too late.”
Numerous landlords and restaurant owners have linked the epidemic to their problems.
They are also dealing with a personnel issue, as cooks and waiters are fleeing the industry in droves in search of more secure employment and restaurant owners claim they have had to hike pay to retain their crews.
According to pub owners who spoke to MailOnline, they are no longer making a profit and are only continuing in the business out of love or because they have no other option.
It comes at a time when some bars have had to come up with unconventional measures to cut their energy expenses while yet managing to stay open.
To increase business and cut down on energy expenses, The Masons Arms in Camelford, Cornwall, has gone so far as to only burn candles on Mondays.
Kate Chawner-Woods, a landlady, has been stretched to the breaking point by soaring energy costs; her August statement went from an average of £700 in 2018 to almost £3,000 this year.
When she first read the power bill, she pondered, “How are we going to manage?”
We were quite concerned about how this winter would turn out since there has been a significant rise in the cost of living; at this point, our power bill barely covers our rent.
The increase in pricing, according to landlady Melissa Evans, 47, who has worked in the profession for 21 years and for the last three and a half years, is beyond absurd.
She said that the costs for her bar, The Plough, in Whitstable, Kent, had skyrocketed recently.
The landlady said that the only way they have managed thus far is by making cuts everywhere they can, operating with a skeleton staff, and often working for nothing herself.
I’ve got to rethink how to manage the pub, Ms. Evans said.
In order to save employee expenses, we now shut at 9 p.m. on weekdays and only actually utilize our restaurant space on the weekends.
We have a small staff and could use a few more people certain weeks, but we’ve all agreed to work a little bit longer when necessary so nobody loses money. I put in a lot of shifts since I’m clearly “free” labor.
According to the landlady, there will probably be a ripple effect on the neighborhood in terms of employment and offering a destination for tourists.
In an effort to save expenses, the Ye Olde Fleece Inn in Kendal, which dates back to 1654, had to do away with its beer garden.
The Fleece is managed by Westmorland Hospitality, whose director is Chris Moss. Before entering the field four years ago, he practiced emergency medicine. He told MailOnline that because of the sector’s present difficulties, “it is now simpler to manage an A&E department than a bar.”
He continued by saying that the pub was reducing its menu due to the cost of operating the fryers and grills.
The grave concerns follow the discovery last summer that there are now record-low numbers of pubs in England and Wales.
In the first half of 2022, there were less than 40,000 pubs overall, a decrease of almost 7,000 from a decade earlier.
According to research by real estate consultants Altus Group, pubs that have vanished from towns have either been destroyed or turned into other structures like residences and businesses.
Londoners in particular are fighting to keep the city’s nightlife alive after becoming weary of the repeated noise complaints that were threatening to destroy their neighborhood pubs.
The 200-year-old Compton Arms in Islington, north London, was faced with closure this summer when four new neighbors who moved in during lockdown claimed that revelers were too loud and that the establishment was a health hazard. This provoked outrage.
As people became used to the “Covid calm,” according to bar owners and landlords, the epidemic led to an increase in noise complaints. One landlord said that if someone gets too loud in her establishment, “my heart sinks into my stomach.”
In addition, there are other problems that are endangering the nightlife of what was once a vibrant capital city.
Plans to convert clubs and bars into apartments and business space is driving once-popular establishments out of London’s nightlife.
Have you been forced to shut for the winter or take extraordinary measures to save expenses? Write to Jamie Phillips at mailonline.co.uk.