Prices set to rise says McMullen's

by Claire Hu The boss of McMullen's, the Hertford brewer and pub company, has warned of big rises in retail prices on the back of a vast array of increased costs to the industry. Managing director Peter Fur-ness-Smith lambasted the Gov-ernment for swamping businesses in red tape and thereby pushing up the price of a pint at a time when the trade is struggling to compete against supermarkets. He claimed that in the last year the company had faced an 8% rise in salary costs as a result of increases in national insurance and the minimum wage. It was expecting to be further hit in the pocket by the new Licensing Act. He said the increasing cost of red tape would inevitably force a rise in retail prices in the company's 140 managed and tenanted houses. "Government-induced costs in our industry are rising at unprecedented levels, materially over the rate of inflation and are on course to rise even further," said Furness-Smith. "Wage costs have gone up and in addition, we are having to prepare and pay for the new bureaucratic licensing regime. "We will try to hold our prices for as long as possible but these cost increases are substantial and will mean that when the time comes, our pubs will have no choice but to increase retail prices, probably quite substantially. Our customers have so far been understanding but this will further help the off-trade at the expense of pubs generally." Latest research by the Red Tape Group shows that since Labour came to power in 1997 the trade has been hit by more than 190 law changes. Spokeswoman Kate Nicholls said: "We are continuing to call for a statutory review of the cost of new legislation to be carried out after its implementation." McMullen's is also considering putting up the price of its beer, in common with rises from Coors, Carlsberg-Tetley and Diageo, which become effective in the next month.