Karen Murphy: Local pubs under threat

When I first joined the pub industry in 2004, as tenant of the Red White & Blue in Southsea, Hampshire, the economy was ticking along nicely, we could smoke a cigarette with our drink, there was still a traditional culture of popping into your local on the way home from work, and the future seemed secure.

Nine years later the UK is a very different place. As is well documented, I was taken to court in 2005 for showing football through a Greek satellite system rather than Sky. That battle lasted until October 2012 and was very time-consuming, intrusive, tiring and costly. My victory — confirming the legal right to use European satellite systems — was a moral one, as it didn’t increase my business or generate any additional income.

Major decline​

But that victory now seems more and more hollow, as big corporations spend more and more money disguising the truth and fighting every bit of legislation.

It seems as if the general population still doesn’t realise its legal right to use European satellite systems.

The pub industry started its major decline back in 2007/2008 and, if it hadn’t been for this high-profile case, I would have left then. I stayed as I wanted to still have a part in the very industry I was fighting for.

Big business in general has caused, and will continue to cause, the demise of the local. There are 26 pubs per week shutting down at the moment and we have lost around 7,000 since 2008. Within 20 years it will be only the large chain bars that survive unless the pubcos, the Government and some suppliers start realising that they are killing the very thing that feeds them.

Killing this section of the industry​

In the nine years that I have been involved with the Red White & Blue I have seen my rent increase by 240%, my average cost per barrel increase by 200% and more, my rates by 205% and my utilities 173%. To achieve a 48% profit margin and a wage of around 6% of takings, I would have to charge between £4 and £5.20 per pint.

My regulars could not sustain that kind of expenditure and would not only move to one of the cheap, large managed chains but go out even less than they do now and buy cheap drink from the supermarkets. I can only achieve an average margin of 28%, which leaves a wage of 0%. Since 2008 I have had to work elsewhere to ensure I had an income.

This is not a sustainable situation for tenants. The pubcos and breweries are killing this section of the industry and they urgently need to look at their tenanted business models before it’s too late and we lose our little locals and community pubs forever.

Too little too late​

Although the Government is finally proposing to establish a statutory code and independent adjudicator and asking an open question as to whether the code should include a mandatory free-of-tie option, it seems that —  for many of us — this will be too little, too late.

My tenancy finishes in June 2014, but I don’t know if my little local will be able keep its doors open until then. I’d like to thank all the people who supported me throughout the court case and am grateful for the hundreds of letters and phone calls I received in support of my battle with the Premier League and Sky.