Hieneken pint

Cost of a pint climbs to £8 in London

Hieneken pint
Heineken pint

The price of a pint in London has hit £8.06 for the first time as pubs struggle to cope with spiraling inflation. Pub companies are threatening further rises because of sharp increases in the cost of grain as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, which is a prime supplier, along with rises in energy and labour costs. The growing cost of barley was a “big negative” for brewers as malting barley inflation of approximately 70 per cent. Clive Watson, Chair of City Pub Group, which operates 41 pubs in London and the South, said ingredient costs were up 10 per cent, wage inflation 7 per cent, and utility inflation is up 100 per cent putting up the price of a pint up 12-13 per cent”. The group raised the prices by 5-6 percent in December. Green King which runs 2, 700 pubs have recently increased prices by 5p a pint, and Marston’s CEO  Andrew Andrea said it had put prices up by 8 per cent in March. 

Global brewer Heineken is considering further increasing its prices to cope with “macro-economic uncertainty, having a price rise earlier this year in February 2022.

For Heineken especially from Europe net revenue grew by more than two fifths (46.1%) organically with total consolidated volume up by 16.9 per cent,

Executive board chairman and CEO Dolf van den Brink said: “ We had a solid start to the year in line with our expectations, especially benefiting from strong channel mix from the partial on-trade recovery of Europe and assertive pricing across all regions. We continue to make progress on EverGreen and launched Heineken Silver in Europe to drive premiumisation at scale on April 22.

The 4 per cent ABV brew was made available to the on-trade draught and in 330ml bottles from 4th April, backed by a £20m market spend, which includes TV advertising, in-outlet visibility, social media, mass sampling, and exposure at major sporting events. After two years of struggling through Covid-led lockdowns, the hospitality sector is enjoying a welcome boost as company corporate managers rush to restore corporate identity by booking early summer parties for employees, as bosses are pushing for work patterns at almost pre-pandemic levels to resume.