Why James May is right (and it hurts to say it)

Few things get us Brits more emotionally unhinged than suggesting our local pub doesn’t deserve to survive.

So, when TV presenter and pub co-owner James May went on LBC Radio and said the UK simply “doesn’t need as many pubs as we once had” and that “the good ones survive and the bad ones will fade away,” the internet did exactly what you’d expect. May was branded an out-of-touch millionaire who doesn’t care about community heritage in nano-seconds.

But if you strip away the knee-jerk emotional outrage and look at it from an operator’s POV, you may have to admit something deeply uncomfortable: could May be right?

A pub is not a historical monument or a charity case, it’s a business, and the very real economic crisis can make an easy excuse for running an uninspired, flat and frankly outdated operation.

As I’ve stated many a time, the macroeconomic numbers are brutal. The average price of a pint has skyrocketed by 36% in four years, and 63% of consumers have cut back on visits because their disposable income has vanished. So now a night out is less everyday and more of a luxury; punters’ mindsets have fundamentally shifted. People are no longer willing to pay £7 for a warm pint in a drafty, unheated room with sticky carpets just out of a sense of local duty.

The era of the convenient drinking hole is dead. Bring in the experience-led venue!

If you look at the data, nearly 20% of Millennials are actively seeking premium hospitality experiences when they go out, and half of Gen Z adults are opting for high-quality low-and-no alcohol options. The venues that are surviving/thriving have stopped waiting for a government bailout and are adapting fast. Whether they’ve introduced gaming or poetry nights, curated high-margin tasting menus or built crafting communities, treating your space like a destination seems to be the way forward.

If your business model relies entirely on the government lowering duty so you can keep selling cheap lager in an uninspired space, your clock is ticking. So stop mourning and start evolving – make our own spaces too good to fail.

This content is contributed by a guest author. Startups.co.uk / MVF does not endorse or take responsibility for any views, advice, analysis or claims made within this post.