Wet sales have fallen in a third of style bars since the smoking ban, a survey by The Publican's sister magazine Theme has revealed.
The worrying figures - one of the biggest surveys since the ban took effect - show the bar sector is suffering heavily under the legislation, while the story could be even worse for pubs.
More than 1,000 representatives from the bar sector responded to Theme's survey conducted six weeks after the ban. Twenty three per cent said wet sales were down between one and 15 per cent.
Six per cent said wet sales had slid between 15 and 25 per cent, while four per cent revealed wet sales had dropped off more than a quarter.
Nearly a third described the ban as having a minor negative impact on their business and a further six per cent said it had had a major negative impact. A fifth said they believed the post-ban trading environment was a long-term trend.
Mark Brumby, an analyst at Blue Oar Securities, said the findings were worse than his industry-wide forecast - which included pubs - of a drop in revenue of between three and five per cent.
Prior to the ban he predicted style bars would perform better than traditional pubs, as customers choose to go to these types of venues for different reasons than pubs. "Customers have stayed away," he said. "It's bad rather than good and that's a fact."
However, he warned the short term could have skewed the results - and forecast that the industry would take 18 months to recover from a post-ban dip in revenues of three per cent.
The report also revealed that bartenders feel exploited and believe they could be better off working in a junior position in a pub than taking on more responsibility, the Theme Industry report has revealed.
More than half of bar and restaurant workers earn less than £25,000 per year, the survey also showed.
Twelve per cent earn between £12,000 and £15,000, 18 per cent take home between £16,000 and £20,000 and 21 per cent earn between £21,000 and £25,000.