Beavertown: From the founder’s kitchen to a £100m buyout May 7, 2025 The first Beavertown pint was brewed in a kitchen rice pan in 2011. Over 10 years later, they’d been bought out by Heineken for over £100m. All while being the most expensive pint in the country, and surviving a pandemic where most breweries lost 95 per cent of their business overnight. The difference was savant-level positioning. Here are three levers [...]
JD Wetherspoon sales jump despite continued pub sell-off May 7, 2025 Sales at JD Wetherspoon jumped five per cent over the last quarter as the pub giant continued to sell more locations. The pub giant has sold off seven of its pubs since the start of the year, despite opening only two new ones, it said in a trading update today. It said it expected to [...]
Wetherspoons: Pub group hikes dividend despite cost warning March 21, 2025 Pub giant J D Wetherspoon has reported a dip in profits in its half-year results despite an uplift in sales, while chairman Tim Martin warned that rising labour costs and tax disparities are set to hit the pub industry hard. Its share price fell more than seven per cent in early trades. Like-for-like sales rose [...]
‘Rachel Reeves, you must do better’: Chancellor urged to act before hospitality’s collapse February 4, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been told to take urgent action to prevent the collapse of thousands of hospitality businesses across the UK. In an open letter Sacha Lord, who was until recently Andy Burnham’s night time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, said he no longer considers Labour to be the party of “business and growth”. [...]
Where to watch the 2025 Six Nations in London, from sports bars to posh pubs January 30, 2025 The Six Nations seems to come around faster and faster every year, and the 2025 edition will kick off on Friday. Across five of the next seven weekends, beginning on 31 January, a total of 15 matches will be broadcast across London. So City AM has done the hard and collected the best pubs and [...]
Breakfast and brunch fuel sales surge at pub giant Butcombe January 29, 2025 A surge in customers ordering breakfast and brunch has helped sales surge at pub and brewing group Butcombe. The North Somerset-headquartered group has reported an increase in its total managed like-for-like sales of 7.8 per cent for the year to 25 January, 2025. Its food category jumped by 12 per cent while both accommodation and [...]
London pubs giant targets new openings after sales success January 27, 2025 One of London’s largest independent pubs and dining groups is preparing for further expansion after reporting a jump in sales for its latest financial year. Urban Pubs & Bars (UPB) has announced that its turnover increased by 16 per cent to £60.5m in the 12 months to 28 April, 2024. The group added that the [...]
JD Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin calls on Starmer to reduce pub taxes January 22, 2025 Wetherspoons chairman Tim Martin has once again called on the government and Keir Starmer to reduce the tax gap between supermarkets and pubs in his company’s latest trading update. Martin said following the government’s decision to hike the national minimum wage, business rates and employers’ national insurance, costs at Wetherspoon will increase by around £60m [...]
Pub giants allay fears of hospitality crisis despite higher wage bills January 15, 2025 Pub giants Mitchells & Butlers and Fuller, Smith & Turner have both expressed confidence as the firms adapt to higher wage bills, in a positive sign for an industry which warned of crisis last year. Mitchells, the owner of Harvester, Toby Carvery and All Bar One, reported like-for-like growth of 10.4 per cent over the [...]
Why you should still go to the pub in Dry January January 2, 2025 Dry January has crept up on us once again — a month in which avid pub-goers look to kickstart a healthier year ahead. For some, it’s a month to start fresh with new beginnings. For others, such as the hundreds of independent pubs across the nation looking for growth, it is yet another challenge. Especially [...]