Pubs in England to take a £109m hit in revenues post smoking ban

England’s pubs are set to miss out on £109m of potential revenue during the next three years after the start of the country’s smoking ban, according to food service analyst Horizons.

Horizons arrived at the figure by combining pub performance data from the past few years with the effect on trade recorded in Ireland and Scotland post smoking bans.

The £109m figure is a forecast of how much more pubs in England would have made during the next three years without the imposition of a smoking ban in England this July.

Horizons forecasts that the first full year of the ban in England will be the worst with a net revenue loss of around £519m compared with the last pre-ban year.

Peter Backman, managing director of Horizons, said: “There will be winners in the predicted growth in food sales following the smoking ban.”

“These will be mainly the managed pubs which are already in a strong position with food sales and have the finance available to invest in upgrading food facilitates,” he said.

Horizons website >>

Catering and hotel businesses still ignorant of details of England smoking ban >>

Read more news on the smoking ban here >>

Smoke free England website >>

Northern Ireland pubs have no time to prepare for smoking ban >>

Pub revenues set to rise initially after smoking ban introduction >>

By Chris Druce

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