Smoking ban hits pub trade

Mar 29 2007

A YEAR after the Scottish Executive stubbed out smoking in enclosed public places, licensees in Perth and Kinross are broadly in line with the rest of Scotland in finding the ban has resulted in a steep drop in trade.

Traditional drinking establishments which have not adopted the ‘pub grub’ culture have been particularly badly hit, with business down almost 25 per cent in some cases.

Angus MacDonald, president of Perth and Kinross Licensed Trade Association, said: “Up-to-date reports and surveys in this area show some businesses are down 10-24.5 per cent in turnover.

“Businesses which have good facilities for smoking outside are the ones with the lower drop in turnover. The ‘landlocked’ public house is suffering the most, especially if they do not serve food.

“But the drop in business is all across the board.”

Mr MacDonald explained that a ‘landlocked’ pub is one where there is nowhere other than the public pavement for smokers to go for a cigarette.

For some publicans the smoking ban could be the death knell for their business.

“One public house has closed in Crieff in the past year, although I don’t know if it was a direct result of the smoking ban.

“There are about 110 licensees of public houses in Perth and Kinross and we are expecting 10 per cent to disappear, maybe more.”

Mr MacDonald, of Arduthie House in Crieff, who is also on the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA), conceded that the publicans’ plight in Perth and Kinross was generally not as bad as large cities.

Country-wide statistics collated by the SLTA show a third of pubs had made redundancies, drink sales were 11 per cent below pre-ban levels and food sales were down three per cent.

The SLTA does recognise the benefits of the smoking ban. “One of the positive feedbacks we’ve had is that many people like the no-smoke smell.

“Staff in general are happy with the ban, although a lot of them are smokers themselves who are not so happy that they have to leave the bar to go outside for a smoke,” continued Mr MacDonald.

He said the STA continued to monitor the situation carefully and its members would ideally like the Scottish Executive to relax the legislation to allow premises to provide smoking rooms.