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SMOKING BAN HITS HARD, SAYS PUNCH

Pub profits will suffer

Wednesday May 2,2007

By Andrew Johnson

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(2)

NEARLY 8,000 pubs in England will suffer as a result of the smoking ban, the chief executive of Britain’s biggest pub group said yesterday.

Punch Taverns boss Giles Thorley said that, based on the company’s experience in Scotland — where a smoking ban has existed for a year — up to 15 per cent of England’s 53,000 pubs will struggle.

Thorley said reasons varied from a lack of suitable outdoor smoking space to stubborn tenants.

“There are a number out there with their heads in the sand and a ‘Nobody tells me what to do’ attitude,” said Thorley. “We have told them no action is no option.”

Punch, which runs 9,300 pubs, said pre-tax profits had risen 28 per cent to £138million on revenues up 50 per cent to £921million for the six months to March, figures largely driven by the acquisition of Spirit Group last year.

The company said like-for-like sales, stripping out new pubs, rose 5 per cent across the whole estate. However, underlying sales had fallen in Scotland because of the smoking ban.

Thorley blamed 15 per cent of the group’s Scottish estate, saying the remainder performed in line with everywhere else. He expected England, where the smoking ban will be introduced in July, to do much better.

Punch Taverns has sold a number of unsuitable pubs, and landlords are also poised to benefit from lessons learned from the experience in Scotland.

But Thorley dashed investor hopes the company was planning to split itself in two — a dedicated property company and a pub operating company — to take advantage of new tax breaks, and Punch shares fell 44p to 1260p.

He said the situation was under constant review but the company currently believed no additional value would be created for shareholders by doing the splits.

Thorley added there were signs the cider boom was beginning to slow, adding that Magners-owner C&C was facing competition from new products.

AGAINST SMOKING BAN.

10.06.07, 1:34am

Scotlands pub trade has lost an estimated £100 million pounds since the smoking ban was introduced there! The government do not have substantiated proof that secondhand smoke damages health, they have broken the Advertising Standards Authority rules as they dont have any evidence, so with no proof and by sending smokers outside, when they could be sat in a ventilated room is probably in breach of their human rights. 200 pubs are planning a day of defiance and according to a Daily Telegraph survey up to three million people plan to defy the rules. More people smoke in this country than voted Labour in the last election! They dont deserve to be treated like lepers. Go to Freedom2choose.co.uk and vote to allow ventilated smoking rooms in pubs and clubs that wish to allow it.

• Posted by: jAMESY • Report Comment

SMOKING BAN HITS HARD, SAYS PUNCH

08.05.07, 2:32pm

It has taken hundreds of years to reach the sensible and healthy decision to ban smoking in public places. The main stumbling block has been the profits of the tobacco companies and the taxes they pay. Smoking kills, even secondary smoking. I refuse to go in pubs because my eyes sting, my clothes and hair stink and cigarette butts litter the floors. Social places should be sociable and given a little time they will become more popular and profitable than before.

• Posted by: glynthered • Report Comment