Those robbing b...........s!
Hi all, after a long break...
it takes a budget to get me going again. As some of you know I'm the Vice Chairman of a Social Club. It's part of a Community Centre and offers a nice little club to the local community. Since the smoking ban, trade has dropped off somewhat, and just recently, the suppliers increased the price of drinks by just under 4%. This happens once a year, and they're not a charity, but it's reasonable. We increased, for instance, a pint of Fosters/John Smiths by 8p to £2.23 from £2.15 last month. Now we have to put up the prices again from Monday by 5p to £2.28 for the same drinks. What they fail to mention in the hyperbole about increases in duty is that you also have to pay VAT on the rise, hence 5p not 4p. In 5 weeks, through no fault of our own, we will have increased the price of a pint by 13p.
Unlike our bigger commercial rivals ie. the pubs, we don't have a chain where we can play off prices across various establishments to keep ourselves competitive.. for instance put a few pence on Fosters in one pub, and sell it cheap in another. Do that across the range of products, and no one pub suffers a massive increase across the board.. you can always attract custom with one special offer or another.
We don't have that option, and really have three main brands, Fosters, John Smiths and our House brand spirits, which increased from £2.15 to £2.25 last month (per 50ml), and with the latest increase will now be £2.30.. 15p increase in 5 weeks.
This is a service that we offer the local Community, and make just enough profit to pay the staff and a token rent to our parent Community Association.. in theory. I reckon if we lose three or four regular main customers we'd struggle to stay afloat.. and these increases may just be enough to do this. At the moment we have three evening shifts staffed by volunteers (Mrs Liam and I cover two of those ourselves) as it is, to keep the wage bill down.
I have no idea why the sudden need to increase duty by so much, as it is, as all supplier increases provide an increase in current duties, and of course the VAT that increases automatically along side. I've checked previous budgets, and previous increases go as follows..
1998 1p
1999 0p
2000 1p
2001 0p
2002 0p
2003 1p
2004 1p
2005 1p
2006 1p
2007 1p
2008 4p
..more than half as much again as has been the combined increase for the last decade, in one fell swoop.
This budget, which does nothing for anyone really.. OK, they're looking for the grey vote with the increase in Winter Fuel Allowance; could be enough to finish a Not For Profit community organisation, and in the South at least, Community interaction is sketchy at best. Of course, as the profits generated are used to fund the Community Centre that we are the registered trading arm of by way of rent revenue, this has knock on effects for the whole place.. pre-school, playgroups, Guides, Brownies, and a hall for private functions such as weddings etc... you get the idea.. the hub of a community of 5,000 odd people could well become but a note in the annals of the Local Historical Society.
Well thanks Darling.. and organ grinder Brown.. nearly 2 decades of hard work by myself and three or four other hard working volunteers could go down the pan, just because you couldn't.. to coin a phrase, run a piss up in a brewery.
I may well post later.. I'll be spending much of this evening discussing the potential fallout with the treasurer and secretary (Mrs Liam). You'd probably do well to have your metaphorical earplugs at the ready.. I may use a rude word or two.. which will get edited by breakfast, as my Mum sometimes reads this. :)
Cheers
Liam
it takes a budget to get me going again. As some of you know I'm the Vice Chairman of a Social Club. It's part of a Community Centre and offers a nice little club to the local community. Since the smoking ban, trade has dropped off somewhat, and just recently, the suppliers increased the price of drinks by just under 4%. This happens once a year, and they're not a charity, but it's reasonable. We increased, for instance, a pint of Fosters/John Smiths by 8p to £2.23 from £2.15 last month. Now we have to put up the prices again from Monday by 5p to £2.28 for the same drinks. What they fail to mention in the hyperbole about increases in duty is that you also have to pay VAT on the rise, hence 5p not 4p. In 5 weeks, through no fault of our own, we will have increased the price of a pint by 13p.
Unlike our bigger commercial rivals ie. the pubs, we don't have a chain where we can play off prices across various establishments to keep ourselves competitive.. for instance put a few pence on Fosters in one pub, and sell it cheap in another. Do that across the range of products, and no one pub suffers a massive increase across the board.. you can always attract custom with one special offer or another.
We don't have that option, and really have three main brands, Fosters, John Smiths and our House brand spirits, which increased from £2.15 to £2.25 last month (per 50ml), and with the latest increase will now be £2.30.. 15p increase in 5 weeks.
This is a service that we offer the local Community, and make just enough profit to pay the staff and a token rent to our parent Community Association.. in theory. I reckon if we lose three or four regular main customers we'd struggle to stay afloat.. and these increases may just be enough to do this. At the moment we have three evening shifts staffed by volunteers (Mrs Liam and I cover two of those ourselves) as it is, to keep the wage bill down.
I have no idea why the sudden need to increase duty by so much, as it is, as all supplier increases provide an increase in current duties, and of course the VAT that increases automatically along side. I've checked previous budgets, and previous increases go as follows..
1998 1p
1999 0p
2000 1p
2001 0p
2002 0p
2003 1p
2004 1p
2005 1p
2006 1p
2007 1p
2008 4p
..more than half as much again as has been the combined increase for the last decade, in one fell swoop.
This budget, which does nothing for anyone really.. OK, they're looking for the grey vote with the increase in Winter Fuel Allowance; could be enough to finish a Not For Profit community organisation, and in the South at least, Community interaction is sketchy at best. Of course, as the profits generated are used to fund the Community Centre that we are the registered trading arm of by way of rent revenue, this has knock on effects for the whole place.. pre-school, playgroups, Guides, Brownies, and a hall for private functions such as weddings etc... you get the idea.. the hub of a community of 5,000 odd people could well become but a note in the annals of the Local Historical Society.
Well thanks Darling.. and organ grinder Brown.. nearly 2 decades of hard work by myself and three or four other hard working volunteers could go down the pan, just because you couldn't.. to coin a phrase, run a piss up in a brewery.
I may well post later.. I'll be spending much of this evening discussing the potential fallout with the treasurer and secretary (Mrs Liam). You'd probably do well to have your metaphorical earplugs at the ready.. I may use a rude word or two.. which will get edited by breakfast, as my Mum sometimes reads this. :)
Cheers
Liam
posted by Liam | 7:33 PM
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