Budget

The freeze on Duty will do nothing for pubs, as breweries pay duty not pubs, the government keeps misleading this even naming their documents on how it will save pubs money.

We also still have inflation, so costs are still going up, just not as fast.

SIBA have responded that the Duty freeze and the National Insurance cuts are good, but not addressing everything else killing the industry isn’t good.

BBPA also condemned the budget for not doing anything to address VAT or business rates.

The British Institute of Innkeepers too weren’t happy, pointing out that a Duty freeze won’t help pubs who are facing huge utilities costs, wage rises and reduced footfall.

Meanwhile, Rupert Thompson at Hog Back Brewery, who was the lead in the Small Brewers Duty Reform Coalition that resulted in the current Duty system mess, seems to have nothing but praise for the chancellor and his budget in the press release that he put out.

Meantime Brewery Closing

Asahi shutting Meantime in Greenwich, moving production to its Fullers Chiswick site. This is a part of moving all of its local UK beers production to the Griffin Brewery. So Fullers, Dark Star and Meantime are now all being brewed at the same place.

They’re looking to keep the Meantime site for a “standalone consumer retail experience” with a “continuation of brewing”, so a brew pub.

Carlsberg Marstons Brewing Company

CMBC have launched “fresh ale” which is keg beer pulled through a handpull. 

It’s not the first time this has been done, Otter tried it with its “fresh ale” in May last year. 

One thing they might not have thought about though, it’s classed as a misleading dispense method and one that will get any pub using it excluded from Camra’s Good Beer Guide. 

Roosters Buy Out Daleside

The current owners are leaving but the rest of the team are staying and carrying on as before. 

Back in January we saw something similar when Steve Holt of Kirkstall Brewery bought North Brewing.
With more breweries closing, we might see more of this sort of thing.

New Tipping Laws Coming 1st July 

All tips, gratuities, and service charges must go to the staff, the companies can’t keep any of them. Currently cash tips are already protected, but card tips – especially service charges – aren’t, and a lot of companies have just been keeping them.

What’s not been covered in all this, is that you must pay Income Tax on any tips that you get. So with workers now getting those tips, the government is more likely to get its share than from a company registered in a tax haven, or with an accountant who is good at paying the least tax possible.

It’s a way off yet, so there’s still time to get things in order as a business, but with HMRC set to get more money this way, you can bet they’ll be chasing it up.

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, not St. Guinness Day, there are other options.

The sun has come out, we have sunny weather, get beer gardens ready and clean the windows