A pub chain boss has warned how the price of a pint could hit £10 if boozers pass on the price of energy to punters in the next year.
Charlene Lyons, CEO of Black Sheep Brewery in Masham, North Yorkshire spoke on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning after the Government announced the next stage of energy support for UK businesses.
The Government has confirmed it would provide £5.5billion in scaled back support to businesses, companies, charities and other public sector groups from April 2023 until April 2024 to help with high costs.
The package is around six times less generous than the help in place today, sparking criticism from hospitality industry bosses who say UK businesses with a £4.5billion hike in energy bills.
It is feared many businesses would not be able to sustain the increase.
Charlene told the BBC the support offered was “disappointing” and said the sector was suffering from sharply rising costs.
She claimed brewers like hers would be forced to absorb many of the price rises.
She said: “As a brewer, we've got to be really careful about price increases.
“If we were to push all the price increases over to the consumer, energy, input costs like raw materials, everything, over to the consumer you'd be talking about charging over £10 a pint which is clearly not sustainable.”
Charlene explained that this was something that she did not want to happen and that there was "more negotiation to have" over what costs can be passed onto customers.
The Black Sheep Brewery boss said her business would receive more generous help due to its status as an “energy-intensive business”, although the chain's five pubs sites would lose out.
She added: “Let's be absolutely clear, even the benefit for high-energy usage businesses still isn't a great offer.
“You're talking about the best part of a £200,000 increase in energy bills per annum. And that's not sustainable for businesses, including our own.”
With the announcement, Charlene says her business now has the ability to plan but as her business caters to the pub industry, which is also being affected by energy costs, it was going to be hard.
She noted that many hospitality venues have made the decision to have shorter opening hours which will affect the money it, and in turn, the brewer can make.
Under the new plan, all eligible non-domestic customers who have a contract with a licensed energy supplier will see a unit discount of up to £6.97 per megawatt hour automatically applied to their gas bill.
A unit discount of up to £19.61/MWh applied to their electricity bill.
UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said that while she was “relieved” new support had been introduced, UK hospitality businesses face an unsustainable jump in energy bills this year
She said: “Our analysis shows the new, lower level of support will see a total £4.5bn hike in bills for the sector compared to the previous scheme.
“This will simply be unsustainable for many.”
