UK has lost 136 breweries in a year, says SIBA
https://beertoday.co.uk/2025/05/19/siba-uk-breweries-0525/
Posted by signed7
UK has lost 136 breweries in a year, says SIBA
https://beertoday.co.uk/2025/05/19/siba-uk-breweries-0525/
Posted by signed7
25 Comments
There will be no business rates to collect at the rate taxes are killing the hospitality sector.
The pub is a British institution, any other country would be looking at ways it can support them.
Whole hospitality industry needs to die and reset, its absurd how much it relies on exploiting minimal wage workers who work absurd hours.
I like these Microbreweries but I’ve developed a feeling over the past few years that the market was becoming oversaturated.
This is a free market if people want it they will buy it, the younger generation are dialling back the amount of alcohol consumed which isn’t a bad thing.
I think we need a new low duty/tax rate for low alcohol beers/drinks. I’m really liking small beers which are below 3%. Make it so we can get them for under £3 might help. Also don’t link the pub buildings value to the amount of rent they charge, and maybe give incentives for more Free Houses.
I don’t think pubs should be viewed as anything different than any other business. These tax relief ideas and government bump ups are just painting over the cracks that the industry just declining. I have nothing to back this up, but I get the impression that the pubs that don’t offer anything else I.e food, live music, entertainment etc, they are the ones closing.
The culture is shifting and has been for from what I can see around 10ish years. The smoking ban threw a spanner in the works, cheap supermarket booze made it wobble and I think the pandemic was the nail in the coffin.
There are still plenty of pubs, but I think the attitude is moving towards fancy cafes and coffee shops. It’s a different vibe and a much more relaxed atmosphere and you don’t expect any trouble at the end of the night. Pubs will never die out, but a failing business fails for a reason, you use it or you lose it.
landlords are killing this country. can’t drink out if we our finances are being drained by greed
The big companies that own these pubs are a joke, telling you to make a profit on food. I will only go to a Freehouse now that means its owned by the publican.
Many thanks for the large multinational like Carlsberg who have bought many breweries like Banks and Ringwood and simply shut them down. I will never drink a Carlsberg for the rest of my life.
You cant just offer alcohol these days to survive. The bars and pubs near me that support local breweries survive on offering additional reasons to visit. Games night, quiz nights, live music, run clubs, food vendors. Those places are doing ok and offer additional reasons for people to visit
There were a lot of people running microbreweries who had no business running microbreweries
The kids are too broke to go to the pub, and the rich oldies are all queuing up for happy hour, but little else besides.
I genuinely think the answer is an OAP’s premium, not a discount. They’ve got all the cash at the end of the day. Same issue with the TV licence and the BBC, they’re handing out discounts to the wrong customers. Charge the old codgers a lifetime pub subscription and take it out of their estate! 😂.
Good. Booze is a poison.
They’re pushing it onto people during the upcoming recession
Booze is a mug’s game.
So many small breweries opened after pandemic. Could just be the fall off of these
Could it also have been a covid side project thing
In 1900 there were 96,000 pubs in the UK. Now there are 45,000 with a population that has almost doubled.
In 1950 the average person consumed around 30 units of alcohol per week compared to around 20 today.
Sure ye can go into sainsburys and buy a bag of cans for a tenner…everybody outside London wants a pint for 3£,and it’s just not feasible…pubs are on their knees in a lot of places…Alcohol is too cheap..it should be the same price per unit in the shops as it is in the pub
I wonder if the increasingly authoritarian approach to age which seems to be required is cutting off the pipeline of future customers?
It’s changed from “at least pretend to be 18 if anyone asks” to “anyone under 30 isn’t wanted”. I was in a perfectly decent local pub the other day and it was quite sad watching them turn away a large group of 20-somethings because one woman didn’t have the right paperwork. This was good news for the late-night coffee shop across the road, though. I can imagine that such incidents soon put people off using pubs.
Well yeah no shit. Who tf can afford to regularly go out and drink??? Let alone at a brewery.
And before yall waffle on about tax or duty, just remember that Spoons can still make a profit from a £2.10 pint.
I blame chain pubs like Spoons for the decline. Loss leading to force other locals out of business before buying them out.
I’m not surprised. The market was insanely oversaturated with identical craft beers, mainly extremely overhopped ones. This then drove prices up due to the hop shortage caused by this, to the point you’re looking at a fiver per can, in a supermarket, for something that’s not as good as real ale, or spending nearly a tenner a pint for the same.
You start with prices like that and of course people aren’t going to be buying it.
They all make sloppy ales that taste the same (terrible).
When I’m overseas their brewery’s are churning out awesome unique favours .
I don’t know why.
One problem for the less established breweries in the craft scene is there’s probably a top say 6 or so hierarchy of A+ tier breweries that are so consistently good, people are going to always opt for their new releases rather than something from breweries slightly down the pecking order. Everyone wants Track and Azvex for example because they’ve raised the bar to such a high level.
It’s very difficult for British companies to sell into the EU now. Hopefully Labour’s reset will undo some of the damage Brexit caused. Sadly though, for many companies it’s already too late.
2023 vs 24 comparison is rather selective. What are the numbers for previous years? Craft beer, like gin, is a fad that’s coming to an end. Like prosecco, cava, alcopops…etc. etc. before.
Equally, I wonder how many breweries made pubs and people go bust? My aunt and uncle took over a pub in rural north Nottinghamshire back in 2006. The rent and costs far outweighed the income and they closed after 2 years in bankruptcy. I think they were also given some bad advise along the way.
I don’t drink alcohol, so only occasionally go out for a Sunday Roast and that quite rare. I don’t eat out much at all.