Major bar chain with 1,400 boozers set to close ‘breathtaking’ venue within hours
A MAJOR bar chain with 1,400 boozers is set to close a “breathtaking” venue within hours.
The Pitcher and Piano has confirmed it will pull down the shutters on its site in Richmond, London, for the final time on June 15.
The chain is owned by brewing and hospitality giant Marston’s who revealed last year they were set to sell £100million worth of pubs over two years.
The Wolverhampton-based company operates some 1,415 pubs and bars across England, Scotland and Wales.
Punters previously shared their dismay on social media at the closure of their local favourite.
One wrote: “That’s a super shame. The staff there were so good.”
A second said: “Oh that’s so sad! It was our favourite place and sunset spot in Richmond. Will be missed.”
While a third posted: “All the good places are going. Sad sign of the times.”
Chief Executive Andrew Andrea previously told Reuters that Marston’s venues in suburban areas remained resilient, while it only had a handful of sites in city centres.
A spokesperson said: “Marston’s has a stated objective to constantly review its non-core estate. This equates to less than 2% of our total estate of 1400 pubs.
“We are in discussion about exiting a small number of individual sites.
“Particular to Pitcher & Piano in Richmond, it has had a long and successful tenure in the town, and we’d like to thank everyone that has visited us and enjoyed their time in this unique location.”
What is happening to the hospitality industry?
Many food and drink chains have been struggling recently as the cost of living has led to fewer people eating and drink out.
Businesses had been struggling to bounce back after the pandemic, only to be hit with soaring energy bills and inflation.
Multiple chains have been affected, resulting in big-name brands like Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny’s closing branches.
Some chains have not survived, with Byron Burger falling into administration last year.
Tasty, the owner of Wildwood, said it will shut sites as part of major restructuring plans.
The brand plans to close 20 loss-making restaurants after a “challenging” start to the year.
It follows reports that Whitbread was looking to speed up plans to sell hundreds of its pubs and restaurants.
The chain was said to have marked at least 250 of its 440 pubs and restaurants for sale, most of which are located close to Premier Inn hotels.
Earlier this year, The Sun revealed that over 7,000 pubs are expected to go bust in the next year.
Rising costs and fewer punters through the door has meant that four out of five pubs have seen their profits take a nosedive.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open. In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said that when it relocated a tired store in Chesterfield to a new big store in a retail park half a mile away, its sales in the area rose by 103 per cent.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
