E-Malt.com News article: UK: Smoking ban will speed up pubs’ closure rate reaching 6,000 in the next five years

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the firm of accountants, expects pub closures to accelerate beyond its own predictions as the smoking ban and consumer squeeze tighten their grip on the sector, The Publican communicated on June 30.

The firm believes 6,000 pubs will close in the next five years if they “do not take definite steps to address the impact of the ban and squeeze on consumer spend”, with 2,000 of these closing this year alone.

PWC said it was revising its 2007 prediction of 5,000 pub closures by 2012 after 1,200 had shut for good last year, double the 700 closures in 2006.

Martin Jervis, partner, Advisory at PWC said now was the time for pub owners to “take a long hard look at their businesses and make some difficult decisions around their future strategy”.

Jervis said companies should “recognise loss-making trends early and deal with them in the appropriate way, for example through sale or closure”.

Meanwhile a Cancer Research study has revealed that 400,000 people in the UK have quit smoking a year after the ban. The charity estimates 40,000 lives have been saved by the legislation.

The smoking ban was introduced throughout the UK on 1 July 2007, when England came into line with public smoking bans in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Cancer Research’s figures come days before a Department of Health survey, which is expected to reveal that 234,060 people quit smoking between April and December 2007.

Approximately 22% of the adult population in the UK smoke.


01 July, 2008