Brakspear freezes beer prices for third year

Oxfordshire-based pub company Brakspear has cancelled its January beer price rises for its 145 tenants for the third consecutive year. The operator...

Oxfordshire-based pub company Brakspear has cancelled its January beer price rises for its 145 tenants for the third consecutive year.

The operator took the decision to help its tenants through the New Year "trading blues" created by the VAT rise and the knock-on effect of the pre-Christmas bad weather.

The price freeze will apply to all Brakspear beers supplied to its own tenants.

"Many of our pubs face a fairly bleak start to 2011," said chief executive Tom Davies.

"Trade in our destination pubs was inevitably dented during December due to the snow and now we have a VAT increase adding pennies to the price of a pint, at a time when consumers can least afford it.

"Cancelling the January price rise on our beers gives our tenants some respite during this post-Christmas period, and we hope that the Budget in March will contain some signs that this Government is sympathetic to the ongoing plight of the nation's pubs."