Pub group collapses up 31 per cent in third quarter

The number of on-trade businesses going belly-up rose by nearly a third in the third quarter of 2010, prompting fears that the much-heralded economic recovery has not worked its way through to the country's pubs and bars.

Accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy found that 130 bar companies went bust in the third quarter, compared with 99 during the same period in 2009.

And quarter-on-quarter, company collapses rose 15 per cent in the last three months.

Recent casualties included Balls Brothers, the City of London bar chain and the East Anglian pub operator, Maypole Group.

Anthony Cork, a director at Wilkins Kennedy said that "despite the growing economic recovery, bar companies continue to collapse at an increasing rate."

"As they were about to embark on the busy Christmas trading period, the most profitable time for this business, it is surprising that lenders are calling time.

"This lack of confidence from lenders is worrying news for the industry. When well-established brands like Balls Brothers go under in the lead up to Christmas, alarm bells start ringing."

Cork said that bars and pubs had been hit hard by increasing tax burdens introduced over the last year, and recent trading has been affected by the snow.

Rising taxes weren't helping either, he added. "Constantly faced with being undercut, bar operators are forced to swallow tax increases themselves or lose custom to the supermarkets."

He also argued that further legislative burdens will heap even more pain on pub and bar companies in the coming months as the government's Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill comes into force, imposing a £4,500 levy for bars and pubs that serve alcohol after midnight without a correct licence.

Cork said: "The government seem to have forgotten pub operators in their desire to tackle binge drinking problems.

"Banning the sale of alcohol below cost price would curb a great deal of binge-drinking, while sparing the pub and bar industry from further woe."