How close are we to the £10 pint?

Simon Dodd, chief executive of Young’s pubs, has said venues need to minimise passing costs on to punters as the sector continues to confront higher expenses.

In an interview with The Times, Dodd said that the pub group was in good stead in the lead up to Christmas, but warned that future security would depend on minimising rising costs for customers.

Dodd said: “Every company works out how to minimise passing costs on to the consumer.”

The pub group’s strategy is currently paying off. Young’s is currently 30% up in Christmas bookings on last year, according to its chief executive. “In London, it’s absolutely huge. We’ve got massive corporate bookings in [other London pubs] the Oyster Shed, the Guinea Grill, Smith’s of Smithfield,” he said.

“And think about this year, the weather’s been awful. Rain in April, rain in May, rain in June, we didn’t win the Euros, the rugby team won one game against Japan, so people are thinking, you know what? I’m going to enjoy myself. I’ll worry about it in January.”

Young’s is responsible for 278 pubs across the UK, and is seeing the most success in London in the lead up to Christmas. Sales are up 16% across the group’s sites in the capital, compared with about 5% or 6% in the rest of the UK.

Rising costs are the biggest threat to the pub sector’s success, according to Dodd, who noted that we are now heading towards a £10 pint.

“We’re nowhere near that,” he said, “but I think our job is to work out how you can be more efficient, how you play with your range at the bar, to ensure you don’t pass on a lot of the costs. Our sector has had a lot of costs in the last few years, there’s no doubt about it.”

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