It's time to make a choice

There's no escaping the fact that smoking bans in pubs are a bigger threat now than they ever have been.

Each week The Publican runs stories on the latest moves by anti-lobbyists to impose smoking bans on pubs.

This year alone we have heard:

• The trade is facing renewed pressure from the government to speed up the roll out of no-smoking areas or face regulation. (Click herefor the full article)
• Scotland is pushing for self-regulation after its chief medical officer called for cleaner air. (Click herefor the full article)
• Action of Smoking and Health sends threatening letters to the industry's retailers urging them to take responsibility for their staff. (Click herefor the full article)
• Northern Ireland's trade association calls an emergency meeting following pressure to ban smoking in pubs. (Click herefor the full article).

The issue is not going to go away and the pressure for a total ban on smoking in public places has never been greater.

The general consensus is that it's now time for some real choice - something that is already making massive headway through self-regulation.

Here we have a look at the situation as it stands today, what the future may hold if we take the New York route and how moves are already being made to accommodate smokers and non-smokers alike.

We ask you to make your own business choice now before it's made for you.

Key facts​

The industry is making considerable progress:

• In 1997, just 23 per cent of licensees claimed to have a no-smoking area. This doubled to 46 per cent in 2003.
• Only seven per cent claim they do not have any form of ventilation at all
• Eight-eight per cent of licensees are aware of the Smoking Charter.

But there's no escaping the devastating consequences if the government feels the progress is not enough:

• Thirty-one per cent of licensees say they will lose 50 per cent or more of their trade if bans were introduced
• The average loss of trade for licensees will be 38 per cent.

Source: The Publican 2003 Market Report​

The Publican's Editor-in-Chief Lorna Harrison writes:​

As someone who's just given up smoking (for the ninth time), it makes life a lot easier for me to avoid smokers - particularly in pubs where the temptation to light up is much greater.

That's my personal choice - at the moment. Give me six months when I've gone through the stages of cadging the odd one and buying packs of 10 before succumbing to the "oh well I'll give up again after the weekend" theory, then I can guarantee that if I can't have a cigarette in a pub, I will go elsewhere.

So as someone who was brought up in a pub, comes from a family of smokers, works for the pub industry and, at the same time is desperate to kick the habit, what's my view on the smoking debate? Quite simply, there has to be choice.

To ban smoking from all pubs will be catastrophic. There will be civil upheaval, pubs will lose trade and we have evidence that many will go out of business altogether.

Smokers are not lower-class citizens. They may be sadly lacking in will-power but their money is as good as the next man's and in times when competition for the leisure pound has never been so fierce, to alienate the smoking population will damage the state of the industry we have today.

And before you start putting pen to paper presenting me with your top 10 health reasons for banning smoking, I must add that I agree that smoking is a terrible thing. It sends you to an early grave and it can have an adverse effect on those around you. On top of that it does make your clothes smell, gives you bad breath and yellow teeth and yes, it would be better if Walter Raleigh had kept his amazing discovery to himself.

But it's here, it's not going to go away in a hurry and the challenge to the industry is to find solutions to cater for all customers.

And that's where choice comes in. Laurel's move to open several non-smoking pubs is one way of going about it. It's early days, but if they are successful it will hopefully pave the way for more outlets to turn completely smoke free. This comes with a list of benefits including proving to the government that the trade can self-regulate by providing choice without the need for mandatory bans.

It does, however, take a brave publican to ban smoking and there's plenty of cases where pubs have failed in doing so.

So providing choice in an outlet is likely to be the best solution. If the pub is big enough, segregated areas are the best option and not just for non-smokers. Smokers prefer to be around smokers, they feel much more comfortable lighting up in an area where it is allowed and where they're not made to feel like social outcasts.

Finally, ventilation is the key. Draw the smoke out from your premises, keep the air clean and fresh and you should be moan-free. The trick is to translate this into all pubs, large, small, rural, listed - it's not going to be easy. So how do we move forward? We are without any shadow of a doubt going to be subjected to smoking bans if we continue as we are. Having worked on The Publican for 10 years and seen the smoking ban threat rear its ugly head every few months, I can safely say that the pressure on the government to stop smoking in public places has never been so great. And with the precedent already set elsewhere in the world, the decision is not going to be as tough as it would have been five years ago.

It will happen unless there are radical improvements in our outlets. Not every publican is doing their bit and until they do, the threat grows closer. The new year challenge to all publicans has got to be clean up your air. If you don't please don't whinge when the bans come in - it will be your fault.

If you want to keep your smoking customers, you have to act - don't expect the larger retailers to do all the work. We have 16,800 freehouses out there who have to act off their own backs on top of hundreds of tenants who may receive little or no direction.

This one really is in your hands.

Laurel leads the way​

One retailer has boldly gone where no other retailer has gone before. Laurel Pub Company has already converted four of its 625 pubs to no-smoking with plans to have up to 50 free-from-smoke outlets by mid-summer.

The brave stance is having a "very significant" impact on profits at the pubs. "So much so that your readers probably wouldn't believe the figures if I told them," said chief executive Ian Payne.

"The only negative impact has been on AWP takings and I can only assume that most players are smokers. However, the rises in other areas outweigh the negatives."

The smoke-free pubs follow refurbishments in a number of Laurel's Wayside destination food outlets, so the question has to be whether the business boost is coming from the refurbishment or the ban on tobacco.

"We've refurbished a number of pubs and the takings from the three no-smoking pubs are much greater than the others," said Ian. "The reaction has been unbelievable. I've had people emailing me asking me to open pubs in areas we currently don't exist in."

However, Ian recognises that the stance would not work in all of its pubs and becoming a total no-smoking estate is not an option at the moment.

"The last thing I want to see is a total smoking ban. That would be a disaster. We believe that offering a choice is good for our industry but it has to come with the support of the licensees.

"We have something like 60,000 pubs in the country and I reckon about 10 per cent of those need to be n