Yorkshire Coast pubs 'losing business' due to rising costs
The industry is being hit hard as they look to try and keep costs down but stock is becoming more expensive
As leading breweries warns the price of a pint could hit seven pounds because of inflation, pubs on the Yorkshire Coast say they are losing business.
They say they are looking to keep costs down but stock is becoming more and more expensive.
Mark Bates is from The Three B's micropub in Bridlington and said: "The situation is not very good for us at all. We've tried really, really hard to keep prices back as much as possible. Our prices have gone up around five or six percent in the two-and-a-half years of being here. Yet, we're seeing costs more than double that for stock and other costs particularly utilities is a big issue.
"It's quite clear that a lot less people are coming to hospitality venues in general. Our customers are saying they're not sure how much longer they can support us. This is a very, very difficult time indeed and we're not sure what the future holds for ourselves and other hospitality businesses."
Meanwhile, Stewart Campbell is the branch chairman of Scarborough's Campaign for Real Ale, which encompasses pubs in Scarborough, Filey, Pickering and Malton.
He said: "Trade hasn't recovered since Covid lockdowns. Customers' habits have changed, there's more drinking at home and more ordering online so the impact of that on the pub trade has been quite huge.
"Energy costs have flown up and brewing for instance is a massive consumer of energy. The cost of raw materials has been sky rocketing as a lot of the barley etc come from central Europe and the crisis in Ukraine with Russia isn't helping that.
"Just recently the cost of cleaning materials such as caustic soda for cleaning brewing vessels out has doubled almost overnight. There's a lot of CO2 used in the brewing process and not only is the cost of that going up but there's a shortage of it. It's just one thing after another. It's basically an imperfect storm.
"Whilst we haven't seen too many pubs closing at the moment, we're starting to hear of pubs basically mothballing themselves in the run up to Christmas. I've been notified of two pubs this week where they've basically shut their doors at the moment to save on energy costs, and they intend to open just before Christmas for the Christmas trade and New Year.
"I hope things are going to improve in the Spring and the Government's assistance on energy costs etc will be extended come April. The Government needs to understand that they take a lot of revenue through taxes from the hospitality, pub and brewing industries and those industries need some help."