Brit beer sales at lowest level since Depression

updated 3:05 p.m. ET July 28, 2008

LONDON - The iconic British pint is fast losing ground as the national drink, with a report out Monday showing beer sales in pubs slumping to their lowest level since the Great Depression.

Squeezed by a nationwide smoking ban, rising costs, competition from supermarkets and the economic downturn, beer sales fell 4.5 percent between April and June this year, compared with the same quarter last year.

"Most people are a bit bored with beer," said Anthony Buck, a manager at the Lock 17 bar in Camden.

But how can this be? This, after all is a drink which has been such a staple across the country that bars in many a rural pub is still adorned with personalized tankers for regular imbibers.

Buck said that beer was being overtaken by drinks like hard cider, which "is a lot more fashionable and people tend to pick up on the trends."

The British Beer and Pub Association's Quarterly Beer Barometer revealed that pub managers around the country are now pulling around 14 million pints a day — a fair amount — but some 1.6 million fewer than last year and 7 million less than at the height of the market in 1979.

In Britain, the BBPA's quarterly barometer also highlighted the growing trend for drinkers to enjoy a pint in the comfort of their own home instead of at the pub. While overall sales are down, sales in shops and supermarkets rose nearly 4 percent.

Pubs have repeatedly criticized supermarkets for selling multipacks of drinks at below cost to entice custom.

"I do more drinking at home now than at the pubs — they're more for special occasions since it's becoming so expensive," said Chris Hanson, 43, a carpenter heading into a grocer in the London neighborhood of Camden. "I used to go (to the pub) two or three times a week after work, but now I just stay at home and go once every now and again."

The BBPA, whose members brew 98 percent of Britain's beer and include nearly two-thirds of the country's pubs, fear the declining sales will speed up the closure of pubs and clubs around the country.

More than 1,400 pubs called last orders for the final time in 2007 and the Campaign for Real Ale claims that more than half Britain's villages are "dry" for the first time since the Norman Conquest of 1066.

BBPA chief executive Rob Hayward urged the government to rethink the heavy taxes on alcohol, accounting for some 90 million pounds (around US$180 million) of revenue each year, which the industry blames in large part for its woes.

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