BlogWonks

So tough now that British alcoholics can’t afford to drink in pubs anymore.

Robert Munro buys his booze at London liquor stores these days. As his expenses rise and Britain teeters on the edge of recession, the house painter is cutting back on nights out and pouring drinks at home.

“It’s gotten more and more expensive to just head down to the pub for a drink,” said Munro, 55, who is self-employed. “You’re paying silly prices for a pint — you can drink at home for half the price.”

Five British pubs are closing their doors every day, according to the British Beer & Pub Association, as pound- pinching drinkers embrace staying in as the new going out. That may hurt beer companies like Heineken NV and Carlsberg A/S more than distillers, such as Diageo Plc, because the brewers generate the majority of their U.K. sales at bars, where profitability can be double the level in retail outlets.

Beer sales at pubs, known as “on-trade” in Britain, fell 8.1 percent in the third quarter, meaning 1.1 million fewer pints drunk per day, the BBPA says. “Steep declines in the on-trade are a problem for margins,” Joergen Rasmussen, chief executive officer of Carlsberg, said in relation to the U.K. market in a Nov. 5 interview. “Being the most profitable segment, it’s a problem for us and for everyone.”

Britain, whose economy contracted last quarter for the first time in 16 years, accounts for about 3 percent of the global beer market, according to researcher Canadean, and almost a tenth of the European market. Valby, Denmark-based Carlsberg’s British sales by volume will fall 3 percent next year, according to the average estimate of two analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

I blame the failed policies of the Bush administration.

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