Ownership of UK pubs 1990 - 2017

The 2018 edition of the BBPA Statistical Handbook dropped onto my doormat yesterday. A nice late Chirstmas present. It's one of my favourite books, unencumbered as it is by much in the way of text.

Flicking through its pages, my eyes were drawn to one table on pubs. And their ownership. The numbers tell an intriguing tale of the fall and rise of brewery pub ownership..

In my early drinking days, the vast majority of pubs were brewery owned. And the few that weren't were really free either, having some sort of loan tie. The Beer Orders changed that and the large breweries offloaded their pub estates, mostly to pub companies.

Pub companies existed before Beer Orders. Sometimes, like Heavitree, they were breweries that had stopped brewing, but helf onto their pubs. But none operated on the scale of the large pub companies which had estates numbering thousands of pubs.

Between 1990 and 2003 there was a huge shift in ownership from breweries to pub companies, leaving the latter owning more than 50% of the total. But after 2003, the picture became very different. Independently-owned pubs, which had a fairly constant 30% share for 15 years, began gaining at the expense of pubcos.

The growth of indepently-owned pubs was spectacular after 2010, almost reaching 50%. Breweries also increased their share, though not by as much. I'm not sure if the 1,900 pubs Heineken acquired from its purchase of Punch in 2017 are included in the figures. I suspect they are.

What will the future hold? My guess is that the pubcos share will continue to fall and that of breweries increase. Like the Big Six, the pubcos will soon be a thing of the past. At least the unbranded ones. I can't see Wetherspoon disappearing anytime soon.

Ownership of UK pubs 1990 - 2017
Year	Brewers		Pub companies		Independent		Total
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
1990	43,500	68.50%	0	0.00%	20,000	31.50%	63,500
1991	29,500	47.43%	12,700	20.42%	20,000	32.15%	62,200
1992	25,700	41.72%	15,900	25.81%	20,000	32.47%	61,600
1993	26,200	42.95%	14,800	24.26%	20,000	32.79%	61,000
1994	26,000	42.83%	14,700	24.22%	20,000	32.95%	60,700
1995	22,200	36.39%	18,800	30.82%	20,000	32.79%	61,000
1996	22,300	36.68%	18,500	30.43%	20,000	32.89%	60,800
1997	21,900	36.14%	18,900	31.19%	19,800	32.67%	60,600
1998	19,700	32.30%	21,700	35.57%	19,600	32.13%	61,000
1999	20,400	33.17%	21,700	35.28%	19,400	31.54%	61,500
2000	11,200	18.42%	30,400	50.00%	19,200	31.58%	60,800
2001	10,100	16.64%	31,600	52.06%	19,000	31.30%	60,700
2002	9,800	16.31%	31,500	52.41%	18,800	31.28%	60,100
2003	8,300	13.97%	32,500	54.71%	18,600	31.31%	59,400
2004	8,900	15.08%	31,700	53.73%	18,400	31.19%	59,000
2005	9,400	16.04%	31,000	52.90%	18,200	31.06%	58,600
2006	9,400	16.15%	30,400	52.23%	18,400	31.62%	58,200
2007	9,400	16.35%	30,000	52.17%	18,100	31.48%	57,500
2008	9,100	15.99%	28,900	50.79%	18,900	33.22%	56,900
2009	8,900	15.92%	28,400	50.81%	18,600	33.27%	55,900
2010	8,700	15.70%	24,200	43.68%	22,500	40.61%	55,400
2011	8,500	15.54%	22,800	41.68%	23,400	42.78%	54,700
2012	9,300	17.29%	19,800	36.80%	24,700	45.91%	53,800
2013	9,300	17.71%	19,000	36.19%	24,200	46.10%	52,500
2014	9,800	18.88%	17,500	33.72%	24,600	47.40%	51,900
2015	9,400	18.50%	16,900	33.27%	24,500	48.23%	50,800
2016	9,400	18.69%	16,900	33.60%	24,000	47.71%	50,300
2017	11,000	22.75%	14,700	30.40%	22,650	46.85%	48,350
Source:
BBPS Statistical Handbook 2018, page 68.