Robinsons announces price freeze for tenants

Robinsons, the Cheshire-based brewer and pub operator, has frozen prices for all of its cask beers and some of the lagers it supplies.

The 360-strong family brewer put the price hold down to it saving money through its new £5m brew house which has helped the company save 70% of energy during brewing.

Prices for Carlsberg, San Miguel, Amstel and Becks Vier have all been held.

Last week, the Publican’s Morning Advertiser exclusively revealed that Enterprise Inns implemented a 4% to 5% rise in tied drinks products from 6 February. And Punch Taverns announced an average increase on draught beer of 4%, blaming wholesale price rises of 6%.

Early January saw Heineken UK added 7p per pint, Diageo added 5% to draught Guinness and Wells & Young’s increased the wholesale selling price of its own brewed beers by 4.9% — all citing increased production costs.

Robinsons director William Robinson said: “First and foremost – it’s tough out there. We have just completed a full estates review and what we are continually hearing is how hard things are for our tenants. We don’t want people to leave us and equally we want to be an attractive place for the best operators in the industry.

“Secondly, our new £5m brew house means that we are 70% more energy efficient and so we are able to pass some of this on to our extended family.”

He added: “We’re doing our bit. It would be nice to see a ray of sunshine that the government were prepared to join in and bring life back to our struggling industry.”

Has your pubco increased prices or have your prices been frozen? Email gurjit.degun@wrbm.com.