Dublin publicans have slammed the moves by multinational brewer Heineken to hike the price of pints by up to 25c today as “terrible timing”, adding that hard-pressed punters “have had enough”.
Pub owners say that the brewer is increasing prices to “unprecedented” levels for pint drinkers just as the cost of living begins to bite hardest in the run-up to Christmas. Last night, Ronan Lynch, owner of the popular Swan Bar on Aungier Street in Dublin, said: “People have just had enough”.
Mr Lynch said that pubs are only just getting back on their feet after being shut down for Covid and that many need a good Christmas just to survive. “This will not be helped by Heienken’s decision to up their prices today,” he said.
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And Mr Lynch added that the very essence of Irish pub culture is at risk if the brewers keep upping the price of a pint. The publican said: “I think the big concern is what price increases of this magnitude will have on the whole industry, on pub culture, that’s the main concern.”
The cost of a pint of some of your favourite brews owned by Heineken, including its flagship brand, Heineken, along with Coors Light and Moretti will go up from today after the brewing bosses announced they were raising the bar because of rising costs of production. Publicans were written to last month and told by Heineken Ireland that the cost of their products was going up by 9% from today, December 1st.
This would equate to a price hike of around 17c per pint, or 25c after VAT was added. The brewery has introduced some supply supports for publicans to offset the price increases for the next few months, but this should still mean pints go up by at least 10c.
Mr Lynch expressed his disappointment at Heineken’s decision when he spoke to Dublin Live last night. He said: “We’re really, really disappointed with it. It’s an unprecedented rise and I think everybody’s under pressure at this time of the year, so yeah, just really disappointed with it.
“I mean, look, I just don’t think the Trade needed it at this time. Heineken decided to push this price hike themselves, everybody’s under pressure, we need to have a good Christmas just so we can bounce back from Covid.
“We were two years with it and there’s a lot of ground to make up. We’re kind of a year open, but this will be the first real Christmas we’ve had in three years or so. It’s just really important to get people back, to get things back, it wasn’t needed at this time unfortunately.
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Mr Lynch added: “It’s timing and obviously people are a bit anxious about what is around the corner and I suppose that feeds into it. They’re seeing prices going up and the economy tightening, people are getting nervous at the whole point of what is around the corner and having higher prices going into a recessionary period is not necessarily a good thing for the industry.
“I think the big concern is what price increases of this magnitude will have on the whole industry, on pub culture, that’s the main concern. In saying that, the level of the price increase is something that we’ve never seen before, so the magnitude of it is off the richter scale.
“It’s three times the normal equivalent of what we’re used to in terms of price increases. So, in essence, Heineken have done four price increases in a 12 month period, which is just crazy. And that’s why people have just had enough.”
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