What's a good GP% for a UK pub in 2026? The real benchmarks by pub type and by drink, and why 61% can be a good result

Aim for 65% or better on drinks and on food. The last proper benchmark survey of UK pubs put the average wet GP at 66% and food at 67%, but tied tenants averaged 61.2% on wet against 68.9% for free-of-tie leases. Product by product it's wider still: a standard lager at £5.34 makes about 55%, a house vodka single about 83%. So a wet-led local whose draught is most of its sales can be doing everything right and still land around 61% overall.

That's why a single "good GP" number is half an answer. Your number depends on what kind of pub you run, whether you're tied, and what your customers actually drink. Here's what's known, what each drink should make, and how to work out what good looks like for your own bar.

The benchmark by pub type

The most recent named, category-level survey of UK pub margins is the UKHospitality and Christie & Co Benchmarking Report 2022, covering the second half of 2021. Nobody has published a fresh one since. Everything you see quoted as "the 2026 average pub GP" without a named survey behind it is either from this report or made up.

Gross profit margin by segment, H2 2021

Pub type	Wet GP	Food GP
Community local	65%	68%
Food-led	65%	68%
Casual dining	72.1%	65.9%
High street	68%	66%
Accommodation-led	64%	69%
Nightclub	72.7%	66%
Wine bar	69%	66%
Whole survey	66%	67%

Two things in that report matter more than the table. First, food margin passed wet margin for the first time in the survey's history, with food up 3.1 points and wet up 0.5. The report puts part of that down to the temporary VAT cut on food at the time, so don't read too much into the food figure. Second, the tied gap.

The tied gap: 61.2% against 68.9%

The same survey split wet GP by lease type. Estates mostly on tied leases averaged 61.2%. Estates mostly on commercial, free-of-tie leases averaged 68.9%. The report itself says the tied sample was small, so treat it as a direction rather than a precise figure, and it notes tied tenants usually pay less rent to make up for it.

If you're tied and your wet GP is in the low 60s, that's not you doing something wrong. It's the tie. Comparing yourself with a free house down the road is comparing two different businesses. I've put real prices side by side in tied vs free trade beer prices, and the Pubs Code route for when prices go up is in tied price rises: what you can do.

What each drink should make

Here's the bit the surveys don't give you. These are worked examples from my own guides, with real wholesale prices and the VAT taken off the selling price first.

GP by product, worked examples

Drink	Selling price	GP
Standard lager, pint	£5.34	about 55% (£2.45 a pint)
Guinness, pint, free trade	£5.27	under 50% (£2.19 a pint)
House vodka, 25ml single	£3.80	83% (£2.63 a shot)
House white, 175ml glass	£6.50	74% (£4.02 a glass)
J2O, bottle	£3.85	65%
Cappuccino	£3.50	86% (about £2.50 a cup)

Draught trails because it carries the most duty per pound of sale, it's priced against what the pub down the road charges, and it's the drink with the most waste between delivery and glass: line cleaning, the first pull, fobbing, the last of the keg. Spirits, wine, softs and coffee have none of that. The method for each one is in how to calculate GP% on drinks, and the duty side is getting dearer: from 1 February 2027 draught duty rises about 4.6%, roughly 2.3p a pint, which I worked through in the Budget guide.

Why 61% can be a good result: a blended example

Take a wet-led local where every product is priced properly, and assume this sales mix. The mix is illustrative, so swap in your own from the till.

Blended wet GP, illustrative mix

Category	Share of wet sales	GP	Contribution
Draught beer and cider	60%	55%	33.0 points
Spirits	15%	75%	11.3 points
Wine	10%	70%	7.0 points
Soft drinks and mixers	10%	65%	6.5 points
Bottles and cans	5%	60%	3.0 points
Blended wet GP	100%		60.8%

Every line is doing its job, and the pub still comes out under 61%. A cocktail bar selling the same products in a different mix would come out much higher. So the useful comparison isn't your GP against a national average. It's your stocktake GP against the GP your own prices and mix say you should make. The gap between those two is the money that's going missing, and that's what a GP report is for.

What the older figures said

For context, the BBPA's benchmarking survey reported in 2013 that wet-led pubs' GP had fallen below 50%, with community locals at 49.1% to 49.6%. The 2021 survey's figures are well above that. It's thirteen years old, so it's history, not a target.

GP isn't profit

A 65% GP sounds like a lot of money. It isn't, once the wages, rent, energy and the rest come out of it. The figure that's been doing the rounds this year, from money.co.uk's work on BBPA cost data, is about 3p of profit in every pound a typical pub takes. I've worked that through on a real week in how much profit does a pub make. The short version: a point of GP on £5,000 a week of sales is £50 a week, £2,600 a year, and on 3p in the pound that's a big share of your profit.

If your GP is lower than it should be

1. Check you're working ex VAT. Taking GP off the till price with the VAT still in it flatters it by several points. Explained in ex VAT vs inc VAT stock value.
2. Check the prices you pay against the prices you charge. A supplier rise you never passed on is the commonest cause. Tracking supplier price rises shows how.
3. Look at the mix before you look at the staff. A hot fortnight where everyone drank lager will drag GP down without a drop going missing.
4. Then look at waste. Line cleaning, ullage, part bottles and the drinks that never got rung through. Why GP changes week to week walks through the usual suspects.
5. Only then call it a loss. What's left after all that is your real variance. What's an acceptable variance tells you how worried to be.

If you'd rather see your GP worked out from your own prices and costs without the spreadsheet, the free GP profit leak calculator does the sums for any drink.

Common questions

What is a good GP percentage for a pub?

Aim for 65% or better on drinks and on food. The last proper UK pub benchmark, the UKHospitality and Christie & Co report for H2 2021, averaged 66% wet and 67% food.

What GP should a tied pub make on drinks?

In the same survey, estates mostly on tied leases averaged 61.2% wet GP against 68.9% for free-of-tie leases, so low 60s is normal for a tied pub. The tied sample was small.

What GP does a pint of lager make?

A standard lager at £5.34 makes about £2.45 gross profit, roughly 55%, once VAT is taken off the price. Guinness at £5.27 on free-trade prices makes under 50%.

Why is my overall GP lower than my target on each drink?

Because draught usually makes the least and sells the most. A pub where draught is 60% of wet sales at 55% can blend to about 61% even with every other category above 65%.

Is there a 2026 survey of average pub GP?

No named, category-level survey newer than the UKHospitality and Christie & Co Benchmarking Report 2022 has been published. Treat any 2026 average without a named source with suspicion.