One of the bosses at a Brighton pub, Warren Carter, said that sharing the scale of its financial woes was a “rallying cry” for the community.
Mr Carter, who chairs the board of the Bevy, said: “The response has been bonkers. My phone and social media is just blowing up because people want to make sure that we survive.”
Nine years after the Bevy opened, the community-owned pub said that it was running out of options and had reserves for only about two months unless things turn around.
The Bevy, in Hillside, Moulsecoomb, sent an email to stakeholders, setting out the scale of the financial challenges that face the pub.
The email said that the pub took just under £22,000 a month in sales but spent £10,000 on stock, £9,000 on staff and about £2,000 on rent and its soaring utilities bills.
It also spent about £4,000 to cover the costs of accountancy, equipment and repairs, leading to a loss of about £3,000 a month.
It said that its losses were worse in the winter when sales were lower.
The pub has laid on more events – and this Saturday (1 July) at 2pm it will host its most crucial event yet, a public meeting to generate ideas to keep the Bevy in business.
Mr Carter said: “It’s nice to have people react to crisis like that but we want ideas of how we can continue so we’re still going in 10 years’ time.
“Ours is a community centre with a pub and that’s what people have got to realise.
“We’re delivering services to as many different people as possible and the commercial arm is our pub.
“Actually, it’s that commercial arm that has not been doing as well as it has before because of the ‘cost of living crisis’ because inflation has gone through the roof and the mortgage thing that’s going to hit everyone. I mean, it’s a perfect storm for every single pub.
“Don’t just measure us on finance – every business should try to make a profit – but measure us on our social good.
“You cannot measure everything by money, otherwise most football clubs in this country would have closed because they run at a loss.
“I think the Bevy model is a sound one but we need to find more income streams.
“We have to carve out what we’re good at and find a way of making what we’re good at financially stable.
“Someone just said we should charge for Kids Club, and actually – if you’ve got four kids, if you’ve got no money – to take four quid out someone’s pocket, I just feel that penalises everyone.”
The pub runs some events even though they are loss-making, including weekly family activity afternoons.
And some events are struggling to regain numbers after the coronavirus pandemic such as the Friday seniors lunch club.
New events have been added to the pub’s calendar including the monthly Meet Me At the Bevy, the Bevendean parkrun, with breakfast, and plant sales as well as a learning disability disco, first held last Friday (23 June).
The future of the Bevy public meeting is due to start at the pub at 2pm on Saturday (1 July), with all invited.
