Northern Ireland Just Chose Guinness Over Everyone Else (Again)

One rural pub closes every 2.7 days – and Douglas’ Bar is already a Tesco.

Right, hands up who’s shocked. Anyone? No, didn’t think so.

Douglas’ Bar in Limavady closed. Its licence is now with Tesco. Meanwhile Lacada Brewery can only open their taproom 4-10pm on select days, and can only sell what they actually brew themselves.. no wine, no spirits unless they fancy setting up a distillery, nothing. And last week, Hospitality Ulster looked at a £478,000 independent review that would fix both these problems and said “nah, we’re grand, keep it exactly as it is.”

Last week Communities Minister Gordon Lyons looked at the biggest independent review of NI liquor licensing in decades, saw a bunch of sensible recommendations that would actually let new bars open, let small breweries sell a few bottles from their own brewery door, and make it slightly less impossible for an independent to get a pint on in Belfast without remortgaging the house… and went:

“Nah, we’re sound. Keep the surrender principle. Keep the licence system exactly as it is.”

And Hospitality Ulster (the trade body that represents pubs, bars, hotels, restaurants and, y’know, hospitality) welcomed the decision.

Mate.

When a pub closes (and they’re closing at a frightening rate), its licence doesn’t sit there waiting for another pub. It gets surrendered to whoever can afford to buy it… and increasingly that’s not another pub, it’s Tesco, Sainsbury’s or another off-licence in a retail park.

Ask Limavady about this. Douglas’ Bar closed. The licence? Tesco has it now. That’s not a hypothetical. That’s what happens. A community pub becomes another supermarket booze aisle.

The independent review found that pub licences are systematically being replaced by off-sales licences, and the evidence shows increased off-licence density is linked to worse health outcomes. But the minister looked at that evidence and decided to keep things exactly as they are.

Which means the total number of licences never goes up, only down. And the ones attached to actual pubs keep getting rarer and more valuable… currently £150k to £400k in many cases just for the piece of paper.

Who can afford that? Not you, not me, not some 28-year-old who wants to open a little taproom or the couple who fancy turning a derelict city-centre unit into a craft beer bar. Only the big boys. Or someone willing to sell a kidney and pray.

Meanwhile Northern Ireland has one of the most exciting craft beer scenes in Europe. Breweries winning medals left, right and centre, tourists coming here specifically for the beer… most of whom are operating under producer’s licences that restrict them to 4pm-10pm opening on limited days per year.

Take Lacada Brewery. Award-winning beer, people travelling to Portrush specifically to visit them, and they’re stuck with hours that would make a part-time corner shop blush. And here’s the kicker: they can only sell what they actually produce themselves. Want to offer a glass of wine for customers who prefer it? Tough. Want to stock a guest beer from another brewery? Not unless they’re fancying a complete business model change. Want to create an actual hospitality experience? Sorry, your producer’s licence says beer only, yours specifically, 4-10pm, limited days, that’s your lot.

Not because they’re not good enough. Not because there’s no demand. Because the licensing system was designed decades ago and nobody in power seems bothered about updating it.

But sure, Colin Neill says protecting the value of existing licences is “vital for the stability of the industry.”

Douglas’ Bar is a Tesco

Hospitality Ulster loves pointing out that 47% of GB pubs are owned by nine companies while Northern Ireland is supposedly this independent paradise. Brilliant. Except the surrender principle doesn’t stop chains… it just makes entry so expensive that only chains or the already-wealthy can afford it.

Know who benefits from a system where licences cost up to £400k? Not the 28-year-old with a dream and a business plan. It’s the person with three pubs already and a line of credit, or the multinational with deep pockets who can make it back through tied supply agreements.

If you actually wanted to protect independence, you’d make it easier for new independents to get in, not harder.

We’re not asking for less regulation. We’re asking why the regulation specifically protects supermarkets over pubs.

What The Numbers Actually Say

Look, running a pub right now is brutal. Hospitality Ulster’s own numbers prove it:

• 43% of members have cut staff
• 70% have reduced hours
• 20% operated at a loss last quarter
• 25% think they might fail in the next year

Those figures are devastating. Genuinely.

And I love Northern Ireland pubs. The craic, the music, the locals who’ve been drinking in the same spot for forty years, the sense of community you don’t get in a supermarket aisle buying a four-pack of Stella. Which is why watching them die while their licences get sold to Tesco makes me want to put my head through a wall.

But here’s the thing: if a quarter of your members think they might not survive the year, maybe protecting the second-hand value of existing licences isn’t the best use of political capital. Maybe what the industry actually needs is easier entry, more competition, more diversity, and fresh blood from the breweries that are actually growing and winning awards.

Because right now the system benefits one group of people: those who already own licences. Everyone else is locked out.

Nobody’s saying more pubs magically fixes energy bills or rates. But maintaining a system that keeps the drawbridge up so fewer new places can open doesn’t seem like the obvious solution for the 43% who’ve had to cut staff or the 25% who think they’re going under.

When Neill says “it is not the lack of additional pubs” that’s the problem, he’s missing the point. When Douglas’ Bar closes and its licence ends up with Tesco, that’s fewer community spaces and more off-sales density. When young people can’t enter the industry because the entry cost is a house deposit, that’s a dying sector. When tourists come to visit Lacada and dozens of other breweries but can’t get a proper taproom experience because of outdated restrictions, that’s lost revenue for everyone.

The question isn’t whether to open more pubs or support existing ones. It’s whether the licensing system should make either option actually possible.

The One Small Crumb

Fair play, the Department did partially accept recommendations 19 and 22 on producer/retail licences and there’s a review coming early next year on whether breweries can finally run proper taprooms.

But a review isn’t reform, and “we’ll think about it” isn’t the same as actually doing it. Lacada and the other breweries operating under these restrictions will still be stuck with 4-10pm beer-only service while this review takes its sweet time.

What Hospitality Ulster Could Be Doing Instead

The trade body could be screaming from the rooftops for more licences, brewery taprooms, farmers’-market-style occasional licences… anything to get more places open and more local beer pouring.

Instead their statement welcomed the decision to keep the current system intact.

Hospitality Ulster just lobbied hard to make hospitality harder. Let that sink in.

What This Decision Actually Protects

So congrats, everyone. We protected the second-hand value of a piece of paper.

Meanwhile another rural pub will shut next month and its licence will get surrendered to the nearest supermarket. Breweries like Lacada that are bringing tourists to Northern Ireland will keep running half-arsed taprooms on restricted hours, beer-only menus, while their counterparts in England and Scotland pour seven days a week with full bars. The couple who wanted to open a craft beer bar will give up and move to Manchester or Edinburgh where licensing was reformed years ago. And a pint of Guinness will still cost north of seven quid.

Douglas’ Bar is a Tesco now.

Look, pubs close. Sometimes the business doesn’t work out. Sometimes the owner wants to retire. Sometimes life just gets in the way. That’s not the problem.

The problem is what happens next. When Douglas’ Bar closed, its licence didn’t stay available for the next person who wanted to open a pub in Limavady. It went to Tesco. And now it’s gone. If someone in that community wants to open a new pub, a taproom, or a licensed restaurant tomorrow, they can’t use that licence. It belongs to a supermarket. They’d need to find another licence to buy – for £150k to £400k – assuming one’s even available.

The licence is lost to the on-trade. Permanently. That’s the bit that should bother you more than it apparently bothers Hospitality Ulster.

If that’s “stability”, you can keep it.

So here’s to another year of protecting paper assets while actual pubs close. Here’s to keeping Northern Ireland “independent” by making it impossible for independents to start. Here’s to telling Lacada they can open 4-10pm and only sell their own beer because heaven forbid a brewery run a proper taproom with a full drinks offering like every other country in Europe. Here’s to stability.

I’ll be over here supporting the breweries that are somehow thriving despite all this, not because of it.

P.S. To the Hospitality Ulster members who actually want change… the ones running breweries with restricted taprooms, the ones who’d love to open a second site but can’t afford a licence, the ones in Limavady who watched Douglas’ Bar’s licence walk into a Tesco… your trade body just spent its political capital defending the status quo. Might be time to ask if they’re representing the whole sector, or mainly the members who already hold the scarce licences.