Now is a Great Time to Sell

Posted by Sidney Phillips on 7th October 2021 -

Whoever the smart Alec sage was who said (answers to us on a beermat, please) one can do a lot worse than going into the food and drinks business, as eating and drinking will never go out of fashion, made a very good point. However, this alone can’t explain why - despite the very best efforts of lockdowns 1, 2 and 3 - that there is still interest in buying pubs.

Last summer, even the less Cassandra-inclined commentators in the trade expressed real fears about the future of the UK pub industry. But that was before we blinked in the bright light of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme. Such uncharacteristic Government largesse offered the masses gammon, egg and chips et al at half-price, and in the process spearheaded an unholy stampede back to the pub - at a stroke putting pay to fears that customers wouldn’t return. With even those considered to be more vulnerable voting in droves with their drinks glasses, it was happily confirmed that a COVID-19-traumatised nation had not fallen out of love with the pub. There was an almost audible sigh of relief... on both sides of the bar.

There is little doubt that the collective national pain we have endured these past ten months has shifted lifestyle attitudes. Whilst the majority of us busied ourselves in lockdown mastering the arcane niceties of on-line shopping, in between a diet of daytime TV, Zoom meetings and home-tutoring, many also took the time to ask some more existential questions, such as: What is life for? Am I happy in my career? Why is ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ so bad? People had the time and space to reassess what it is they wanted from their lives.

Certainly, there is now a strong desire to escape from the clutches of the urban jungle into those blank bits one finds on a map between the cities. Ditching the daily commute on the 7.42am from Orpington and the adrenaline rush of city life, in favour of filling one’s lungs with clean air never seemed so good whilst under the suffocating shadow of COVID-19, and what better way to escape from city rat race to town and country than to take on running a pub? These people, looking for change, can see the benefits: you’re your own boss; you’re a key stakeholder in the local community, and if you play your cards right, you’ll have free pork scratchings for life. Moreover, many of these lifestyle-shifters are financed to go.

It is this fundamental change of attitude, a move to improve one’s quality of life (and get access to gratis pork scratchings), that may help to explain why - despite the worst ravages of COVID-19 - that enquiries for pub purchases have been more buoyant post lockdown than the previous year month-on-month. This was much to the (pleasant) surprise for many, including Sidney Phillips’ Chairman, John Williams. He’s someone who believes in, and is fiercely passionate, about pubs (unsurprisingly he owns one himself). John had this to say about the level of interest:

“We have been "bowled over" by the number of enquiries received since the commencement of the lockdown in March 2020. These have exceeded all our expectations and have led to an encouraging number of freehold sales and the grant of new leases over the last 12 months. I think many people are re-evaluating their lives and are considering going down the route of self-employment, and pubs are a relatively low cost way of becoming self-employed.”

Of course, the flip side of this equation is that some established pub-operators are now looking to move out of the industry. Understandably, it’s been a tough time, but concerns that now might not be the right time to sell would appear to be wide of the mark. It may seem counter-intuitive (bonkers, even), but there is still strong interest in buying pubs, despite all that has happened. It is this resilience of the British pub and the nation’s love of the longstanding institution that gives the greatest reason to be confident about the future. It is this that is attracting new blood and finance to the market. We are now looking for more pubs to sell - will yours be one of them?