THE price of a pint of beer in a pub is set to rise by over 70p a pint because of the cost of living crisis, a leading brewery has warned.
Patrick Dardis, CEO of Young’s, said that the price of a pint of beer – which now averages £4.07 in the UK– is going to rocket due to increases in grain prices on the world markets due to shortages caused by the war in Ukraine.
He told GB News that pub chains have been absorbing cost rises for the past six months and that another hike in prices is likely to be seen in September or October.
Dardis said: “Just to put it into perspective, if for example the pub companies were to pass on all of the increases that we’ve had in the last six months, the price of a pint would have to rise by about 60 or 70 pence.
“The pub companies and the brewers are actually absorbing a significant amount of the cost pressures already seen.
“I think it may well see, unusually, a second price increase later down the road, in September, October.”
He made his comments on GB News’ On The Money program during an interview with host Liam Halligan.
Dardis added that prices had already driven up pub prices: “Unfortunately, it’s not just barley prices, but barley prices alone are driving prices up by – it can be as much as 30-40 pence a pint.
“If it was barley alone, we could probably accommodate a standard annual increase which may be about 10 to 15 pence a pint, but when you’ve got unprecedented cost increases, like energy over 200%, national living wage, National Insurance, pretty much every cost line of business operates at the moment are going up at least 6%.
“It’s a tsunami of cost increases that I have not seen in my 40 years in the sector.”
The price hike prediction is the latest in a string of warnings issued by breweries.
Over the weekend it was reported the price of a pint of beer is set to soar by Christmas as the price of barley has been pushed up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Roughly around a fifth of the global exports of barley come from Ukraine and prices for the key brewing ingredient have surged worldwide since war broke out in February.
The increase prompted a warning from Suffolk-based brewer Adnams who said customers should expect pint prices to go up later this year.
Fergus Fitzgerald, of Adnams, admitted: ‘When it comes to that next supply, that’s when we will start to see price increases.
‘The price of barley currently is around 30 per cent higher than it would have been this time last year.
Last week, fellow brewer Marston’s reportedly confirmed they would be hiking prices of their pints due to ‘soaring energy prices and operating costs’.
The company, which has more than 1,500 pubs, said prices would be going up by as much as 45p in some parts of the UK.
It is the latest blow to British households in the midst of the worst cost of living crisis the country has seen in decades, created by soaring inflation, energy bills and fuel prices.
Ukraine supplies just under a fifth of the world’s barley but the war has pushed up global prices
Households have also seen a rise in national insurance and increased bills for some mobile and TV packages, contributing to the squeeze on families’ expenses.
The government’s own watchdog has predicted that this year will see the biggest fall in disposable incomes since records began in the 1950s.
