Throughout the first half of 2025, the UK pub market has shown remarkable resilience, with operators demonstrating great adaptability and a deep commitment to the sector despite economic headwinds and rising operational costs.

 

Demand for pub and restaurant sites remains strong, particularly in the tenanted and leased sector, which is seen by investors as offering better bottom line resilience than managed house models. We’re seeing pubcos remain active, in both acquiring new sites and streamlining their portfolios, but pricing remains a key factor as purchasers seek good-value opportunities.

 

The market remains polarised, with strong appetite for freehold assets under £600,000 and premium sites with sustainable Ebitda. London and the south east have seen renewed interest, while demand in regional cities has softened slightly, and lifestyle-led businesses in tourist hotspots continue to attract buyers.

 

We are seeing transaction volumes rising, with more properties coming to the market as cost pressures prompt owners to accelerate exit plans. Less viewings are taking place, while offers and completions are up, suggesting that prospective buyers are being more selective about the assets they consider, but remain engaged.

 

Reassuringly, approximately 86% of the pubs we sold in the first half of 2025 were for continued use as pubs, underlining sector confidence and the vital role pubs play in communities around the country. And, in the 12 months to July 2025, we sold 46 closed pubs across the country, 35 of which were to reopen under new ownership as hospitality venues. So, despite cost pressures causing some pubs to close their doors, we are seeing new venues emerge.

 

One sub-sector achieving significant growth and outperforming expectations is the pubs with accommodation market, driven by shifting consumer demand and a growing preference for authentic, experience-led stays.

 

Wet-led venues are seeing a resurgence, with a renewed focus on community engagement and events. Food is no longer a pre-requisite, due to the increasing cost of produce and kitchen staffing. We are also seeing a growing preference for low and no-alcohol options, which is prompting pub operators to diversify their drinks menus to meet changing consumer tastes.

 

Leasehold assets are increasingly popular, offering lower entry costs – typically in the region of £50,000 to £150,000 – and enabling new entrants to trade at realistic rent levels. 

 

We are seeing an increasingly stark contrast between full-service restaurants and quick service restaurant (QSR). While traditional venues face mounting pressures, sometimes causing operators to hand back the keys to sites that have become liabilities rather than assets, QSR brands are thriving, buoyed by operational efficiency and shifting consumer habits.

The same cost pressures apply, but QSRs have proven more resilient thanks to streamlined staffing models, technology-driven ordering and a strong value proposition. This agility has translated into real growth, both in outlet numbers and sales, reinforcing QSR’s position as a bright spot in our challenged market.

 

The stability of the lending landscape is a quiet but powerful force underpinning continued deal activity. Loan-to-value ratios have held firm, and interest rates have remained stable and now fallen from 4.25% to 4%, the lowest level since March 2023. Lenders are offering tailored products that reflect the operational realities of hospitality businesses, including flexible repayment structures, support for leasehold acquisitions and a growing willingness to back both food-led and wet-led models.

 

Freehold acquisitions remain a priority for many lenders, but the uptick in leasehold funding is a game-changer, especially for first-time buyers and emerging operators. Lower entry costs and more accessible finance mean the sector is opening up in ways we haven’t seen for years.

 

Despite the cocktail of financial and operational challenges in our sector, its core fundamentals remain strong. The £7 pint may be here to stay, but so is the pub, and we continue to see consumers choosing hospitality venues for socialising, experience and connection. Operators are adapting to follow suit, diversifying income streams, enhancing their experiential offering and responding to changing consumer tastes. We are seeing an evolving sector, but one which still offers opportunities for growth and innovation.

I have now been living and operating restaurants in the US for seven years. When I first moved over and was looking for work, I was enthusiastic on the premise that “operations were operations”. It did not matter which side of the Atlantic you were on as the basic principles behind how to operate a successful hospitality business were the same. There is undoubtedly a lot of truth to that: food is cooked in many different ways but the core techniques are the same, extraction systems are exorbitantly expensive and regularly problematic in any country, marketing is just as much of a dark and mysterious art, and consistency remains the most important and most difficult thing to achieve in any restaurant.

However, maybe slightly counterintuitively, the area where that statement is challenged most is when it comes to hospitality workers. The management and development of people has always been at the heart of what I do. Even above delivering an unforgettable hospitality experience, the aspect that motivates me to work in restaurants, and that I believe I have achieved the most success, is the development of people. While the skills and tools needed to inspire, teach and grow people are the same the world over, the basic relationship between employee and employer, and also between customer and server, is fundamentally different in the UK and the US.

While many differences exist from state to state, employees are overall much less well protected in the US. For example, many states, Texas included, operate an “at will employment” policy. This permits an employee to be terminated without notice at any time, for any reason, as long as the reason is not illegal. Most states also have no requirement for any paid time off. Furthermore, the high cost of health insurance and the lack of an NHS mean that most hospitality workers go without any safety net for their basic or catastrophic medical needs.

However, it is the area of tipping, and the wage structure that is built around that, which provides the most fundamental difference between the two systems. Furthermore, the US system is not just confusing for new arrivals, but its development over recent decades means it is an increasingly messy landscape even for the native consumer.

The more than a dozen restaurants I have been involved with in the US – from neighbourhood bar The Front Page to the Michelin-starred Olamaie – operated several different pay structures for both the kitchen and service sides. All of those structures were attempts to provide a model that was sustainable for both the business and the employees. 

For those that do not know, most of the states in the US operate a sub-minimum wage for tipped employees. This means that service employees can be paid as little as $2.13 per hour (a number that has not increased since 1991) so long as the tipped income supplements the wages to match or exceed the standard minimum wage. What that minimum wage is varies widely from state to state, with many operating at the lowest allowable, federally set level of $7.25, up to $16 or $17 per hour.

This is not the place for a full examination of tipping, its roots in slavery, how it continues to deepen the racial wage disparity, invites misogynistic abuse and encourages a wage and cultural divide between the front and back of house. Instead, I want to write about how the tip structure has a very significant impact upon how you operate restaurants in the US.

Above all, it establishes a unique and bizarre relationship between the customer and the employee. It means the boss, the person responsible for the employment of the team, is accountable for only a fraction, and in some instances, less than 5% of the wage of those team members. There are not many industries where the customer gets to determine the wage of the employees. We are not talking about a few dollars here or there but a swing that can be as much $30-$40 per hour, depending on the type of venue, day of the week or time of the day. The much-outdated cliche of the “the customer is always right” would seem still to be squarely the case when it comes to wages.

Strong opinions are held about how tips should be divided up. The traditional “eat what you kill” model whereby servers collect all of the tips that are paid by their tables may seem fair on the surface. However, nobody wants to work the Sunday brunch shift because it is early on Sunday morning and the customers are kind of crappy; but the tips are equally crappy. Should those employees not be rewarded for working the unpopular shift and dealing with the difficult brunch customers? And what does this mean for counter-service restaurants and bars where tips must surely be pooled among the team?

Many full-service restaurants will also now operate a team-wait set up whereby a table will get assigned a server, but it is the responsibility of all to ensure the guests are well looked after. This promotes a supportive team environment among the servers, a more collaborative place to work and, in theory, better service if the group is greater than the sum of its parts. It also allows the restaurant to do more with less such that the ever-tighter margins of a restaurant can be improved. Does true fairness not dictate that the tip should also be shared with the kitchen team?

The landscape continues to be murky, leaving it open to abuse by both employers and customers. The proposal in Trump’s new bill is to completely remove tax on tips. This move may seem to be a gift to a group of workers at the lower end of the wage spectrum but is actually extremely problematic. Instead of trying to fix the tipping system, it doubles down on it as the way to do business in the hospitality industry. Furthermore, with tips not typically being available to kitchen workers, it does nothing for the even lower paid kitchen workers and furthers the pay gap that already exists.

This industry has worked hard to improve how it treats its employees, with phenomenal organisations such as Good Work Austin leading the charge, and I have learnt to adapt to a different model. However, while tipping remains such a dominant part of the compensation structure, the quest to make hospitality a secure and reliable career path in the US remains a very challenging one.

The hanging basket-adorned Cross Keys pub in Endell Street in Covent Garden was a regular stop-off point for me before heading for an Indian meal at the sadly long-gone Neel Akash restaurant (replaced by Sainsbury’s in Hanway Street). Another plus point was that it also stocked the rarely seen roast turkey and stuffing crisps from Tavern Snacks.

 

Ahead of one particular meal, the temptation was too strong to avoid sharing a packet with as mate, just to “put us on”, as my mother would say, before dinner. But four packets in and we were both cooked. As much as I love Indian food, there was something particularly tempting, addictive even, about that flavour of the crunchy delicacy on that night. It highlighted that you should never underestimate the power of crisps.

 

I’ve argued the case before that pubs should seriously consider whether they really need the costs and hassle of having a full food offer when they could simply have iconic bar snacks such as Scotch eggs, toasties and pasties. I’d even go a stage further and suggest that for a whole swathe of pubs, all that is needed to satisfy customers is a solid range of crisps and other fried bagged snacks. 

 

Two of my favourite pubs are wholly in this camp and offer no hot food whatsoever, but instead have a gloriously rich array of packet savoury snacks. The Swan on the edge of York city centre has myriad options encompassing Seabrook, Burt’s, Pipers, Golden Wonder and KP. This is a true free house and not tied to a single macro crisp maker.

 

It’s a similar set up at the Coach & Horses in London’s Soho. It was once famous for its grumpy landlord Norman Balon, whereas today it has an equally charismatic boss in Ali Ross, who has made the pub renowned for its warmer welcome and beer choices. And I’d argue also for its crisp selection. It is Michelin-star levels – with Monster Munch, Brown Bag, Twiglets and Quavers all present alongside a comprehensive selection from Ireland’s finest, Tayto. 

 

The king of crisps, in my opinion, is Tayto’s cheese and onion, which is a flavour the company developed in March 1954 (Walkers copied it later the same year, and it remains its best-selling flavour). Prior to this, there was only one flavour of crisp – salt. Salt and vinegar did not appear until 1966.

 

Concentrating solely on crisps and other bagged snacks works an absolute treat in the wet-led Coach & Horses, according to Ross, who says the venue averages £6,000 per month on snacks: She said: “We sell a shed load, with every other customer buying a packet of something. It’s an iconic pairing the crisp and the pint, I think. It keeps people in the pub longer. For smaller pubs, why bother with the costs/management of food.”  

 

Certainly, pub-goers appreciate a strong offering, with nearly 80% of consumers believing it important for pubs and bars to offer a good range of snacks. CGA by NIQ with KP Snacks found 50% of people think having a bar snack enhances their pub visit, while 85% are more likely to buy a packet of crisps if they are on display. 

 

Irishman Del Currie certainly understand this. He runs The Old Ivy House in Clerkenwell, which stocks his own range of crisps called Spudos alongside other snacks. Although there is only a single plain variety on the back bar, he uniquely sells a whole range of dustings including chip shop curry, crispy bacon, döner kebab, and nduja and honey. These are used to flavour the naked crisps, which are sold in recyclable bags.

 

Earlier this year, he secured an investment on Dragon’s Den for his innovative UK-produced crisps, with its sustainable production and distribution model that supplies offices and direct to consumers from its website. Currie reckons crisp buyers are predominantly 35-plus-year-olds and that younger consumers have been put off by the perception of crisps as being an unhealthy snack. He’s working on this one.

 

Clearly, we are never going to return to the time in the late 1950s, when pubs accounted for 75% of crisp sales (even by 1969, it had fallen to only 25% as retail stores grabbed the bulk of sales). There are surely opportunities for the (not so) humble crisp to wield more power in licensed premises.

 

Why do we not see more own-brand initiatives? Pub company Sam Smith’s is unique in only stocking its own crisps and nuts. While it sticks to the classic flavours of salt and vinegar etc, there is surely an opportunity for pubs to provide bespoke in-house creations. Much can be learnt from the US, where Chick-fil-A has just launched a waffle-style cut crisp resembling its signature fries, and one of the flavours is inspired by its famous smoky and tangy sauce.

As many as six billion bags of crisps are sold each year in the UK, and it’s time more pubs did a better job leveraging more value from this iconic bagged snack.