'We turned our kitchen into a karaoke room after our bills tripled' (2024)

As British pubs face a perfect storm of sky-high energy bills, competition from supermarkets, a decline in footfall and staff shortages, it's no surprise that they're looking at unique ways to keep costs down.

For many, this involves calling time on opening seven days a week, shortening their opening hours and saying goodbye to their kitchen in order to stay afloat.

The Nelson's Pub in Hackney has decided not to open its kitchen from Monday to Thursday due to low footfall, while the Windsor Castlein Finchley has reduced its Sunday hours and is considering reducing its Tuesday hours too.

Egil Johansen, who runs The Kenton in Hackney, eastLondon, told MailOnline he stopped serving food last year after his gas and electricity bills tripled.

'It's a huge cost serving food. Especially on a busy Sunday when you serve roasts, you need to have a lot of extra staff on,' he explained.

'We partnered up with a local pizza company called Yard Sale Pizza who deliver pizzas straight to the pub and rather than have the kitchen sit empty we converted it into a karaoke room.'

This has allowed the pub to generate income without having 'massive expenditures' running powerful kitchen equipment, Egil said.

The pub, which opens from 4pm most days, has had to navigate increasing costs from suppliers as well as maintaining a Victorian building.

Egil, who is originally from Norway, added: 'The landlord is putting the rent up ridiculously, so that's probably the biggest challenge for us right now.'

When asked about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Egil said: 'It was a massive challenge for everybody, for businesses, you know. I took out £80,000 in total just to survive and I'm paying back those loans still today.

'Then we were hit with the energy crisis and it's a nationwide crisis, so people have less money to spend than before. It's not cheap to go to a pub anymore because we have to adjust our prices accordingly.

'We are coming to a point now where pints are between £6 and £7. I remember when I first opened it was about £3.50, it's doubled in 15 years but wages haven't doubled.'

Egil went on to say that recruiting staff has also been difficult since Brexit and mentioned how one employee had to move out of London after university because they couldn't find an affordable place to live.

'It's difficult because when you're asked what to do to cut costs, it's hard to think of ways to cut costs because we don't want to cut corners,' he added.

Rowena Smith, owner of the Old China Hand in Clerkenwell, hasn't had a kitchen for the last 15 years, after she said it became too stressful to operate.

'You make more money doing food,' she admitted, 'but to me it's not worth the stress.

'And we're surrounded by restaurants. If we were a remote pub in the country we'd have to do food but where we are there's so much competition, so we're just going to stick to supplying customers with good beer and wine.'

Rowena has taken several measures to keep her costs down, sometimes operating the bar on her own and opening from Wednesday to Saturday from 5pm only.

Years ago Rowena's pub was open seven days a week until 2am in the morning, but she said 'there's no business' on certain days anymore.

'I'll walk past all the pubs around us and I think what's the point of opening for six or 10 customers. I don't think I feel brave enough to add the other days on,' she said.

Figures from the BBPA revealed some 509 pubs shut for good in 2023, equating to a loss of 6,000 jobs - with 3,043 pubs going in the last six years. The UK total now stands at an estimated 45,306.

Alison Boutoille, 34, works with over 60 pub landlords in London, many of whom have had to adapt to survive, by changing their opening hours and closing on certain days of the week.

The French national launched CityStack two years ago with the aim of supporting independent pubs after the fallout of the Covid and the disproportionately large effect the pandemic had on the hospitality industry.

The initiative aims to help Londoners socialise within their budget and encourages people to visit pubs that are facing an unprecedented crisis due to staff shortages, skyrocketing energy costs, competition from supermarkets and declining footfall.

She said: 'There is a shift in the way people go out now. It's much more concentrated and people might go out less late than they used to before.

'Since Brexit it has become really complicated to recruit staff and keep them, but also with inflation and the cost-of-living in London it's very hard to find someone to work and afford rent in the city.

'They (pubs) really struggle to keep people working with them and end up doing everything themselves leading to a shrink in opening times.

'The reason I love pubs and everybody loves pubs is because you want to connect people and it's a place to gather communities and having these closed increases loneliness in people.'

Alison went on to explain the shift in people choosing to drink at home over going to the pub because it's 'cheaper and more convenient'.

For example, a four-pack of beer will cost around £4 to £5 in a supermarket, whereas the average cost of a pint in the UK is £4.70 as of 2024.

And cost isn't the only factor effecting pubs, with less people returning to a fully office-based working environment, there are less employees going out for after-work drinks.

Nigel Watson, 67, who runs Anchored microbrewery in Worthing, said: 'I'm a specialist real ale and cider house so I've got a particular target audience and they're quite a loyal bunch of drinkers.

'The biggest cost is to my brewers, particularly electricity and raw materials which have gone up and as a result the price of beer goes up.

'But I think the biggest threat to pubs and breweries is supermarkets and corner shops selling booze at virtually nothing. They don't have the same overheads that we do in the pub industry.

'And it's a very unfair advantage they have and I think there should be control on that. A pub environment controls drinking of people. By law, you're not allowed to sell to someone who is drunk.'

Nigel went on to say that anti-social drinking has an effect on the town, saying it was a 'blight on the community and stops the older generation from coming into town'.