How to put your pub prices up: how much, which drinks, when, and what customers actually do

Put prices up when your costs move, by the amount the sum says, on the lines that actually went up, and change the board and the till on the same morning. The sum: at a 65% GP, every 5p your supplier adds to a pint's cost (ex VAT) needs about 17p on the bar price to hold your GP%, or 6p just to hold the cash. And the bit that stops most of us doing it, losing customers, is smaller than it feels. HMRC's own research puts on-trade beer demand at about -0.34: a 4% rise across the market loses something like 1.3% of pints. A 20p rise on a £5.34 pint pays for itself unless you lose more than 5% of your volume.

Everyone in the groups hates this job. Twenty minutes of sums, then a week of standing behind the bar waiting for someone to say something. So most of us put it off, absorb the brewery rise for a few months, then do one big jump when the bank balance forces it. That's the worst of both: months of lost margin, then the sort of jump people actually notice.

What follows is how I'd do it. The sums, the order, the legal bits that catch pubs out, and what customers actually do.

First, which number are you protecting?

There are two ways to "pass on" a cost rise and they give very different answers.

Hold the cash. The supplier puts 5p on the cost of a pint, ex VAT. You add 5p, plus VAT on it, so 6p on the bar price. Your profit per pint in pounds stays exactly where it was. Your GP% slips a little, because the same cash is now a smaller share of a bigger price.

Hold the GP%. To keep 65% you need the price to rise by the cost rise divided by 0.35, then VAT on top. 5p becomes 14.3p ex VAT, about 17p on the bar.

Which is right? If your rent, wages and energy are going up too, and they are, holding the cash means going backwards slowly. If the rise is a one-off on a single line and your other costs are flat, holding the cash is fair and easier to justify to the regulars. The point is to decide it, not let rounding decide it for you. My guide to tracking supplier price rises has the fifteen-minute invoice check that tells you which lines moved and by how much.

What customers actually do

This is the bit nobody puts a number on, so here's one. HMRC's 2014 working paper on alcohol demand estimated the own-price elasticity of on-trade beer at -0.34. That means if beer prices across the trade rise 10%, beer volume in pubs falls by around 3.4%. Cider was -0.49, wine -0.24. On-trade spirits were the outlier at -1.25, so a spirits rise loses proportionally more volume than it gains in price.

Two honest caveats. It's 2014 data. And it measures the whole market moving together, like a duty rise, not one pub moving while the pub across the road doesn't. Your own customers have more choice than "the market" does, so your number will be worse than -0.34. How much worse depends on how close the competition is and how different you are from it.

So here's the sum the other way round: how much volume can you lose before a rise stops paying? On a £5.34 pint at 65% GP, the cost is about £1.56 and you make £2.89 a pint, ex VAT.

At HMRC's market figure, a 20p rise would lose about 1.3% of pints. Even at three times that, you're still ahead. The rise you can't afford is the one that sends people somewhere else for good, and that's about how it's done more than how much.

Which drinks to move

Move what moved. If the brewery letter says your lager went up 3% and your bitter went up nothing, a flat 10p on everything punishes the bitter drinker for a rise that didn't happen to him. Customers notice that kind of thing more than they notice the number.

A few rules I'd stick to:

• Price each line from its own cost. Check each line's GP% after the change against a sensible target for the category. The GP benchmark guide has what's known about category GPs, and how to calculate GP% on drinks has the method.
• Watch the spirits. With the highest price sensitivity in the HMRC figures, spirits are where a rise loses the most volume. Move them when the cost moves, by what the cost says, no rounding up for luck.
• Keep the gaps between your pints sensible. If standard lager and premium lager end up 5p apart, nobody trades up. Look at the ladder, not just each line.
• Don't forget the soft drinks. Mixers and postmix go up too and they're the drinks nobody remembers to reprice.

When to do it

The calendar does half the explaining for you. Duty went up on 1 February this year, and Heineken's 2026 price rise took effect the next day, on 2 February. A rise in February that matches what's going on everywhere else gets far less comment than the same rise dropped on a random Friday in June.

The average pint was up 3.3% in the Morning Advertiser's 2026 survey, to £5.34. Your customers are paying that rise everywhere they drink. A pub that never moves its prices isn't being kind, it's quietly paying everyone's rise out of its own margin.

One rise a year, done properly, beats three dribbles. Each change is a moment someone might notice. Fewer moments, better explained.

How you say it matters as much as the number

In September 2023 Stonegate brought in about 20p extra a pint at evenings and weekends in around 800 of its pubs. The backlash on social media was immediate. A piece in The Conversation explained why, using a golf study: golfers thought a normal price with 20% off at quiet times was fair, and thought a 20% surcharge at peak times was unfair, even though the money was the same.

The lesson for a local is simple. Don't call anything a surcharge. If you want daytime cheaper, set your normal price and make the afternoon the deal. And be straight about why when someone asks. "The brewery put it up in February and I held it as long as I could" is true in most pubs and most regulars respect it. Don't make up reasons, and don't blame the staff on the till for the price on the board.

The legal bits that catch pubs out

• Show prices including VAT, before people order. Business Companion's September 2026 guidance on selling alcohol puts this under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024: menus or clearly displayed price lists, prices inclusive of VAT, any compulsory service or minimum charge shown. If a customer isn't told the price before ordering and it's well above what they'd reasonably expect, they may have the right to refuse to pay.
• Change the board and the till at the same time. A board showing last year's price and a till charging this year's is the argument you don't want at 9pm on a Saturday.
• Scotland is different. Under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, Schedule 3, a change to on-sale prices can only take effect at the start of licensed hours, and you can't change them again for 72 hours. No mid-shift changes, no happy hours. More in the happy hour guide.
• The 125ml and the half pint still have to be on the list. When you reprint the price list, don't drop the small measures you're required to offer. The drink measures law guide has the full list.

If you're tied

If you're a tied tenant of one of the big pubcos, a tied price rise isn't only a pricing decision. If it counts as a significant increase under the Pubs Code, it can open a rent assessment request (14 days) and a Market Rent Only notice (21 days). Check that before you just reprice and get on with it. The tied price rises guide has the test and the clocks.

The routine, start to finish

1. When the price letter or first post-rise invoice lands, list every line that moved and by how much, ex VAT.
2. Decide per line: hold the cash or hold the GP%. Write it down.
3. Work out the new price for each line, then look at the whole ladder for silly gaps.
4. Run the volume check from the table above. If a line needs a rise so big you'd lose more than the break-even, that's a buying or range question, not a pricing one.
5. Pick the day. Ideally the same week as the duty and brewery changes.
6. Change the till, the board and the printed list on the same morning, before the first pint.
7. Brief whoever's on the bar with the one-line reason, so nobody's left to make one up.
8. Four weeks later, check the GP% and the volume on the lines you moved. That tells you more about your customers than any study.

Where StockTap fits

Step eight is where most of us fall down, because the GP% we see is a month late and mixed in with everything else. In StockTap you change the sell price on a product and every GP report after that uses it, so you can see whether the lines you moved held their margin on the next count. If you've got a recent stocktaker's report, that's the quickest way to get a baseline in.

Common questions

How much should I put my pint up when the brewery raises prices?

Divide the cost rise per pint (ex VAT) by one minus your GP% to hold your GP%, then add VAT. At a 65% GP, a 5p cost rise needs about 17p on the bar. To hold the cash profit only, add the cost rise plus VAT, about 6p.

Will I lose customers if I put prices up?

Some volume, usually less than the rise is worth. HMRC estimated on-trade beer elasticity at -0.34, so a market-wide 10% rise loses about 3.4% of volume. One pub moving alone will lose more than that, but at 65% GP a 20p rise on a £5.34 pint still pays unless volume drops by more than about 5.4%.

When is the best time to put pub prices up?

When your costs move, ideally alongside the February duty change and the brewers' price lists, so the rise matches what customers are seeing everywhere else. One properly worked rise a year beats several small ones.

Do I have to display drink prices in a pub?

You need to tell customers prices before they order, inclusive of VAT, which in practice means menus or clearly displayed price lists. Business Companion's guidance covers this under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

Can I change prices during the evening in Scotland?

No. Under Schedule 3 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, on-sales price changes can only take effect at the start of licensed hours and must then stay for at least 72 hours.