BELHAVEN owner Greene King has revealed its pubs in Scotland are continuing to be affected by the country's stricter drink driving laws, stating that like for like sales would have been higher in its latest financial year had the legal limit not been reduced in December
Greene King, which runs about 200 Belhaven pubs in Scotland, said like for like sales in its retail division rose by 0.4 per cent in the 51 weeks to April 26.
However it said like for like sales would have risen by 0.8 per cent without the impact of the new drink-driving regulations.
Surveys have shown the reduction in the the legal driving limit from 80mg per 100ml of blood to 50mg has had a devastating effect on the pub trade since coming into force on December 5. Greene King said in January that the lower limit had led to Christmas trading being slower than expected, and reiterated that yesterday that the change had continued to weigh on sales in the second half.
Chief executive Rooney Anand said: "We once again traded well over key events, such as Valentine's Day and Easter, as customers celebrated and enjoyed those occasions in our pubs.
"The second half of the year, however, has been tougher than the first half, with more difficult comparatives to last year and the additional impact of new drink driving legislation in Scotland."
Paul Waterson, chief executive of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said it is "really worrying" that companies of Greene King's magnitude are not getting the growth they anticipated on the high level of investment they have made in developing a food-led estate in Scotland.
"I don't hear of any pick-up," he said. "People try and put a good face on it. But when you drill down into it, it is still really bad, especially in rural areas."
Greene King said like for like sales were up 2.4 per cent at Easter and reported record sales of £4m from Valentine's Day. Net income in its Pub Partners or leased and tenanted division was up 3.6 per cent after 48 weeks, while volumes from its brewing and brands vision were 4.1 per cent ahead.
The company said the Competition & Markets Authority would announce a decision on its proposed acquisition of Spirit Pub Company on May 11. The all-share offer values Spirit at £773.6m, and would create the UK's leading managed pub operator, with more than 3,000 outlets around the UK.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article