court ruling and cheaper pints

[studentofbeer]

richard, perhaps you could enlighten me as to what is going on in this article (http://www.just-drinks.com/news_detail.asp?art=23320)--why is this landlord saying he is paying too much for beer, how is it going to cost pubs money, why are cheaper pints bad, and who would this impact? Also, what are the four major tied-house firms?

any insight would be appreciated. thanks!

[stronk]

Having read the article (and knowing British pub trends):

There is always a move towards winebars and clubs in the British pub scene. With international culture being promoted (largely by the influence of the bloody EU) pretty much all over the world, England is being hit pretty badly by a loss of atmosphere. Pubs all over the place are showing signs of metamorphosing into bright, garish winebars. The comfortable old fittings and memorabilia are stripped out of the pub and replaced with stainless steel and glass. The handpumps are thrown on the tip and replaced with tall chrome-plated keg faucets, serving Budweiser and Heineken. The dusty old beer bottles on the shelves are replaced with Australian Chardonnay and Russian vodka.

Anyway, long story short, the pubs get converted into bars and are forced to double their prices by the companies which own them. The companies get more money because of the high prices: people who go to bars spend more, and people who go to pubs also meet with higher prices. Landlords lose money because their prices are so high and the price of the beer from the company/brewery is high.

By forcing the pub companies to lower the beer prices, the courts would make the pub companies lose profits from their bars. They'd put the rents up and the landlords would either go out of business or start charging ridiculous prices for food.
At least, that's the argument; I don't believe a word of it.

[Richard English]

I haven't read this story but suspect it's about a wholesaler charging too much and maybe profiteering by abusing a monopoly. It's probably just media scaremongering.

Not all pub chains (and this is what the article refers to) charge excessive prices - even at current wholesale prices. I had an excellent pint at Wetherspoons in Victoria today - just £1.79. The pint of Shepherd Neame I had at lunchtime cost me £2.40 - over half as much again.

Remember, too, that the pub companies, powerful though they are, do not yet own a majority of the UK's pubs. Most are still owned by brewers or by their Landlords.

Stronk's point about the changes that are taking place in British pubs has some truth in it - although I suspect that the influence of A-B is greater than anything that the EU does. Chemical fizz Budweiser is now the most popular bottled beer in the UK and that position has been achieved solely through aggresive and clever marketing (well, let's face it - it can't be the taste of the beer now, can it?)

So, to my mind a scaremongering story, long on emotion and short on facts. Don't let it worry you too much - but make sure you renew your subscription to CAMRA just in case!