124 Pints per Adult Required to Save the British Pub

With the latest estimates suggesting that the UK’s food and beverage industry lost at least £25.66 billion due to COVID-19, we wondered how much every person in the UK would need to spend in order to reach pre-pandemic levels.

In particular, we wondered how far that money would go in pubs, one of the most beleaguered sectors.

We came up with a figure of 124 per pints per adult, based on a figure of 52 million adults in the UK.

The following graphics lay out the basic duty of every British adult if we are to put the swing back into the British pub sector, of which more than 2500 have gone into company liquidation during the last year.

“Pubs will need additional financial support for years if they are to recover from this,” Dave Mountford, a publican and campaigner at the Forum for British Pubs, commented.

NB: this article does not intend to promote excessive drinking, but merely to highlight the stresses facing the pub sector during this difficult time. Please drink responsibly.

Drink Out to Help Out

Andy Haldane, the Bank of England’s Chief Economist, recently said that the UK economy was like a ‘coiled spring’ waiting to release its pent up energy. While recessions in the past have meant most families have whittled down their bank accounts, the social distancing required by COVID has instead bought significant savings to many UK families since the start of lockdown. 

How much of this this money will be spent in pubs depends, in part, on whether all restrictions are finally lifted next month. Boris Johnson has hinted that June 21st could mark the final lifting of all social restrictions in the UK, cautioning that this decision would be prompted by ‘data not dates’.

Nick Mackenzie, chief executive of Greene King commented that a full easing of restrictions next month would be ‘absolutely critical’ if the pub industry’s fortunes were to be restored.

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