Swine flu survey: tell us the impact on pubs

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/forum.ma/edit-post/58712

I certainly gave up working out margins on tied products a long time ago because it was too depressing to note how my margins were falling from year to year as the benevolent pubco reduced my product range and increased the wholesale price to ball squeezingly tight levels.

Once maintaining my target margin of 60% on draught beer (the best I've achieved in 15 years of a tied lease was 56% - errr about 15 years ago) meant I had to sell my beer at 30p a pint more than the most expensive local competition, I gave up caring about beer margins or checking my invoices to see how much was being stolen from me by S&NPE. And to think that I'm from Newcastle and most of my great grandparents were Scottish. What an irony. Now I'm the most expensive pub in the area and my margin's a whopping 49% which, I contend but S&NPE utterly denies because they understand NOTHING about running a business, is loss making.

Incidentally at my last rent review (2005), which, because I had the AUDACITY to go the whole way on and risk arbitration, high court, appeal and so on is still obviously not fully settled, S&NPE said my GP on draught products whould be 58%. Hahahahahahah - that's an impression of them laughing all the way from my bank