Shepherd Neame announces 10% rent deduction for its licensees

The announcement comes after yesterday (15 December) saw the highest recorded daily number of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, 78,610, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and chief medical officer Chris Witty urging the public to minimise social interactions without closing pubs.

Shepherd Neame chief executive Jonathan Neame said: “These remain challenging times, and we want to ensure we continue to offer every support possible to help our licensees preserve the future of their businesses.”

More than £7m of support to date

This is not the first-time the independent family brewer has offered support to its pubs; during the first lockdown in March 2020, it cancelled all pubs rent during the period of closure and continued the provision of reduced rent after pubs reopened, totalling more than £7m of support to date.

Last month, The Morning Advertiser (MA)​ reported of the Faversham-based company’s, which is Britain’s oldest brewer with more than 300 pubs in London and the South-East, growing success with its total revenue ​for 2021 being £86.9m.

Shepherd Neame also recently signed a letter, co-ordinated by UKHospitality and titled ‘Maintaining the recovery of the hospitality sector’​, which was sent to the Government warning of how Plan B restrictions could ‘bring the hospitality sector’s recovery to a shuddering halt’ during the most important trading period of the year.

Protecting people and pubs

The support offered to Shepherd Neame pubs has been orchestrated to align with the Governments ‘Plan B’ restrictions (which include urging people to work from home, vaccine passports for nightclubs and mandatory face masks) and will remain in place as long as the restrictions are retained, with updates where necessary.

Neame added: “Throughout this crisis our focus has always been to protect our people, our pubs and the Company for the long term.”