Kent brewer Shepherd Neame to hike prices following tax increase
Britain's oldest brewer has said it will hike its beer prices in response to rising taxes and wage costs taking effect in April.Shepherd Neame, which is based in Faversham and runs 290 pubs primarily in the South East, said the two policies announced by the Government last year would cost it about £2.6m a year.Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Shepherd Neame, said: "We plan to mitigate the majority of these costs over the next 18 months through price increases and cost efficiencies."The treasury has been approached for comment.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves increased employer national insurance contributions (Nics) in the October Budget while also raising the minimum wage.The Nics increase is designed to help fund improvements to public services.Some companies have criticised the policy for making it more expensive to employ people, with hospitality groups which employ lots of people on lower wages set to be especially hard hit.Mr Neame, whose company employs about 1,600 people, described the current market as "challenging".
"The additional costs imposed on our sector are most unwelcome but the business model is flexible and we can adapt to the new circumstances," he said."We have an excellent pub estate and our beer business is evolving to meet current consumer tastes and trends."Shepherd Neame is more than 300 years old and is the oldest company of its type in the UK.It brews beers under a range of brands including Spitfire, Bishops Finger and Whitstable Bay.The company said that total beer volumes fell 12.6% in the second half of 2024 compared with the same period the previous year.Meanwhile, revenue fell slightly to £85m, amid an "increase in pub sales and a decrease in sales from premium bottled ales".Nonetheless, underlying profit rose nearly 10% to £4.2m after a fall in inflation last year.
Mr Neame said the company had enjoyed a "buoyant" summer, but during the autumn "confidence evaporated in the run-up to the Budget"."Since then, activity picked up again and we enjoyed record Christmas trading, with good growth on 2023, with many individual pub records exceeded," he said.He said the increase in labour costs had "undermined business and consumer confidence in the short term", but that he remained "hopeful that the economy will return to a growth trajectory, with net disposable income growing and interest rates falling".
Additional reporting by PA Media.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Guardian
23 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Transport Secretary to draw ‘line in the sand' over HS2 as she reveals failings
Heidi Alexander will tell the Commons on Wednesday that she is drawing a 'line in the sand' over the beleaguered rail project, as the Government attempts to reset how major infrastructure is delivered. Ministers plan to learn from the mistakes of HS2 so that they do a better job when it comes to projects like Northern Powerhouse Rail and the Lower Thames Crossing, it is understood. 'HS2 has made Britain a laughing stock in terms of its ability to deliver big infrastructure projects, and it has to end. This will set out the way we will do that,' a Government source told the PA news agency. The result of two reviews into HS2 are expected to be announced alongside the Transport Secretary's statement. The first of these is an interim report by Mark Wild, the chief executive of HS2, who was appointed late last year. He will assess the construction of the project's first phase from London to Birmingham. A second, wider review into the governance and accountability of HS2, led by James Stewart, will also report back. This is expected to set out what has gone wrong with the project, and what ministers can learn for future infrastructure projects. As she addresses MPs, the Transport Secretary is expected to address allegations of fraud by contractors to HS2 which have emerged recently. Earlier this week, it emerged HS2 Ltd reported a sub-contractor working on the rail line to HMRC following an internal probe. During the statement, Ms Alexander is also set to announce a new chair of HS2. The current chair, Sir Jon Thompson, previously announced he would stand down in the spring of this year. His replacement will be Mike Brown, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Mr Brown is the former commissioner for Transport for London, who helped to oversee the deliver of Crossrail, the transport project which became London's Elizabeth Line. HS2 was originally due to run between London and Birmingham, then onto Manchester and Leeds, but the project was severely curtailed by the Conservatives in power due to spiralling costs. Concerns about the costs of the stunted project have persisted, with £100 million spent on a bat tunnel aimed at mitigating the railway's environmental impact singled out by Sir Keir Starmer for criticism.
North Wales Chronicle
30 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Transport Secretary to draw ‘line in the sand' over HS2 as she reveals failings
Heidi Alexander will tell the Commons on Wednesday that she is drawing a 'line in the sand' over the beleaguered rail project, as the Government attempts to reset how major infrastructure is delivered. Ministers plan to learn from the mistakes of HS2 so that they do a better job when it comes to projects like Northern Powerhouse Rail and the Lower Thames Crossing, it is understood. 'HS2 has made Britain a laughing stock in terms of its ability to deliver big infrastructure projects, and it has to end. This will set out the way we will do that,' a Government source told the PA news agency. The result of two reviews into HS2 are expected to be announced alongside the Transport Secretary's statement. The first of these is an interim report by Mark Wild, the chief executive of HS2, who was appointed late last year. He will assess the construction of the project's first phase from London to Birmingham. A second, wider review into the governance and accountability of HS2, led by James Stewart, will also report back. This is expected to set out what has gone wrong with the project, and what ministers can learn for future infrastructure projects. As she addresses MPs, the Transport Secretary is expected to address allegations of fraud by contractors to HS2 which have emerged recently. Earlier this week, it emerged HS2 Ltd reported a sub-contractor working on the rail line to HMRC following an internal probe. During the statement, Ms Alexander is also set to announce a new chair of HS2. The current chair, Sir Jon Thompson, previously announced he would stand down in the spring of this year. His replacement will be Mike Brown, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Mr Brown is the former commissioner for Transport for London, who helped to oversee the deliver of Crossrail, the transport project which became London's Elizabeth Line. HS2 was originally due to run between London and Birmingham, then onto Manchester and Leeds, but the project was severely curtailed by the Conservatives in power due to spiralling costs. Concerns about the costs of the stunted project have persisted, with £100 million spent on a bat tunnel aimed at mitigating the railway's environmental impact singled out by Sir Keir Starmer for criticism.
North Wales Chronicle
31 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
National Housing Bank ‘will boost delivery of new homes'
The National Housing Bank, a subsidiary of Homes England, will be publicly owned and act as a consistent partner to the private sector, bringing stability and certainty to housing developers and investors, the Government said. It will be designated as a public financial institution and will work with mayors and local leaders to back housing projects meeting regional priorities. It is hoped the bank will help to unlock a wide range of sites, including bigger ones which struggle to get upfront lending given their risk and complexity. The Government also said the move will help SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) to grow and build out their housing pipeline more quickly. The bank will deploy some of the £2.5 billion in low-interest loans announced at the spending review to support the building of social and affordable homes. It will be backed with £16 billion of financial capacity, on top of £6 billion of existing finance to be allocated this Parliament, the Government said. It said the new public investment could help build more than 500,000 new homes. Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: 'Our foot is firmly on the accelerator when it comes to making sure a generation is no longer locked out of homeownership – or ensuring children don't have to grow up in unsuitable temporary accommodation, and instead have the safe and secure home they deserve.' The announcement builds on plans for a 10-year affordable homes programme and comes ahead of a 10-year infrastructure strategy to be published on Wednesday, setting out plans to 'rebuild the UK' over the decade ahead. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: 'The new National Housing Bank will unlock £53 billion of additional private investment.' Homes England chairwoman Pat Ritchie said: 'Establishing the National Housing Bank, as a part of Homes England, builds on the agency's expertise at providing a wide range of finance to partners and places to unlock the delivery of new housing and mixed-use schemes.' A spokesperson for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said: 'The launch of a National Housing Bank is an exciting innovation which could propel much-needed investment into housebuilding. 'The industry, and especially SMEs, need all the support they can get for the country to build. 'Confidence is key if the Government is to meet its 1.5 million home target and new streams of investment and support should invigorate new and existing projects.' The Conservatives warned the remit of the new bank must be 'laser-focused'. Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow housing secretary, said: 'While the ambition to increase housing supply is welcome, history teaches us that governments are often poor at picking winners and Homes England has very mixed results. 'The new National Housing Bank must be laser-focused: it must not crowd out private capital, must not subsidise developments that would have proceeded anyway and must not be lured into funding pie-in-the-sky or unviable projects – instead its role should be limited to de-risking only those schemes that are genuinely unable to attract finance, to ensure taxpayer money is not wasted and private investment is not crowded out. 'But beyond this we must look at the root cause of the housing problem – including why SME developers have been driven out of the market and why financing has become so unattractive that the Government needs to step in. Only Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives are doing the deep thinking necessary to address these root issues.'
