Power to the publicans

Are you switched on to saving energy costs across your business? The Publican, with partner Hospitable Climates, is seeking to make sure you are with our new Get Switched On! campaign.

William Blake might have said that "energy is eternal delight" - but in 2006, there is nothing delightful about the spiralling energy costs crippling thousands of the nation's pubs. With electricity, gas and water bills all on the rise, there won't be a pub in the country which has not noticed the effect on their bottom line.

And with domestic customers also feeling the pinch, many pub-goers will have less disposable income to spend down at their lcoal.

Global energy problems prompted British Gas to announce an unprecedented 22 per cent rise in the price of gas earlier this year, while rival Powergen bettered that with a 24.4 per cent rise of its own shortly afterwards.

And it's not going to get any easier to avoid the price rises. Many pubs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be thinking about investing in outdoor heaters to cope with the impending smoking ban, while pubs in Scotland may already have done so.

But how many licensees have factored in the extra heating costs that go with an outdoor heater into their business plan?

It is these kind of challenges that have prompted The Publican to launch Get Switched On!, our new campaign aimed at seeking out best practice on saving and using energy in pubs and putting out some simple messages to the trade.

And some heavyweight backers and advisors are already lining up behind the campaign. Energy saving advisory programme Hospitable Climates, an offshoot of the government-funded Carbon Trust, is now linking up with The Publican to offer advice and support to readers.

Getting to grips​

Hospitable Climates launched into the pub trade in 2003 to help all venues get to grips with their energy costs. Programme director Linda Martin said there was a "real need" for a campaign which gave the issue greater prominence in the pub trade.

"Utility bills used to be things that businesses didn't really care about," she says. "They always knew they were a certain percentage of the turnover.

"Now it's a major issue as prices are going up and up. And when you are a small business you haven't got the buying power to get cheaper prices on your own, and you can't afford highly-paid accountants to help out."

But you can take some simple steps to tackle the problem. For example:

• Join a buying consortium
• Use an agent to hook you up with the best deal
• Make sure you are using the most economic equipment in your pub
• Make sure all staff are fully aware of energy-saving procedures
• Arrange an energy "audit" via a consultant, to pinpoint what improvements can be made across your business - some consultants can do this on a "no-win, no-fee" basis, centred on exactly how much cost savings people can make
• Apply for an interest-free efficiency loan from the Carbon Trust - loans between £5,000 and £100,000 are available for small and medium-sized companies in England and Wales where energy makes up a significant part of operating costs
• Apply for tax relief on new equipment via the Enhanced Capital Allowance Scheme - this enables businesses to claim 100 per cent first-year capital allowances on their capital expenditure on the provision of designated energy-saving equipment against their taxable profits.

All these areas and more will be explored in future issues of The Publican.

"No-one is saying you can make this problem go away," adds Linda. "But what we are saying is that, by doing the right things, you can keep the costs down to a certain level and you won't suffer as much impact as you would if you didn't do anything at all.

"Our research tells us that people can save seven per cent on their utility costs just by good housekeeping."

The scale of the problem​

And the savings cannot come too quickly for licensees. Brian Marshall, of the Musicians Arms in Dorrington, Lincolnshire, says he was "scratching his head" as to how he could cut any more of his energy costs.

"Apart from turning off all the lights at the end of the night I don't know what to do to save electricity. We have energy-saving lights, but we have to keep the fridges on," he says.

"The only other thing is to fit solar panels on the roof. It might sound fanciful, but we could make real energy savings if we did that."

During the winter the pub needs to be heated, while in the summer it needs to have fans to keep customers cool, says Brian - meaning there is no escape from the bills.

"Our water bills are touching £350 a quarter. Our gas bills are now touching £300 per month. Our electricity bill can be as much as £600 a month, when it gets a lot warmer and the fans kick in.

"Five hundred pubs should go to an energy company and get a discount. That could be a monster way of saving money, but it's easier said than done."

Graham Bell, of the Nettleton Lodge Inn in Market Rasen, also in Lincolnshire, used to work in the energy sector before taking the pub. He knows a thing or two about saving energy costs, and has been using low energy bulbs for 10 years. But even he is struggling to cope with the current challenges.

"I would say we have seen a 60 per cent rise in the cost of utilities this winter compared to last winter. But part of that is to do with the longer colder winter," he says. "It does amaze me when I go round other pubs and I realise how many of them don't have energy-saving lamps."

Another practical measure taken recently has seen the water supply switch to an on-demand system, where the water is only heated when required.

"I recently had a customer in here - a cabbie - who said he was thinking of quitting and opening a bar," says Graham.

"I said 'Don't do it - it would be like waiting for a fare and leaving your engine on!' We open the pub and have to make it welcoming and inviting with the lights and the heating while we are waiting for a customer. Until that customer comes in we're just spending money."

Gary Parker, licensee at the Blue Boar in Poole, Dorset, adds that he spends most of the time turning off lights at the pub. "I'm also constantly making sure that the staff do it too," he says.

"The trouble is that once the price of energy goes up, the beer goes up as the brewers' costs go up too.

"So our own costs are rising, and then they are rising again to help pay for other people's costs! But that's life. Everything's rising and this is just another part of the business to think about."

• Tell us about your energy bills - and how you are working to reduce them. Contact us at arjf@gurchoyvpna.pbz​ or call 020 7955 3710.

Backing Get Switched On!​

• Mark Hastings, communications director, British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA):​ "Energy prices have fast become one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses today - the rapid escalation in costs has caused everyone to look at their bottom line. There is a range of tried and tested methods that people can use to cut their costs, and there is a lot of practical advice.
• "But awareness of it is growing, rather than consciousness becoming fully realised. We've been talking about saving energy for a long, long time but it's only really becoming an issue now that energy costs are so high.
• "It's always made sense ecologically, now there's a good business case for it too."
• John McNamara, chief executive, the BII:​ "Energy is one of the most significant controllable costs that pubs have got and anything we can do to cut those costs has to be applauded. It's a matter of influencing businesse