Pub closures: UK’s biggest pub chain struggling to pay £2.2bn putting 4,400 branches at risk

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The Stonegate group, which owns brands like Slug and Lettuce and Be At One, is now in talks with potential lenders to find new loans to replace debt due for repayment next June.

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00:00 Do you still go to your local boozer? Stonegate Pub Group, the largest in the UK, has warned

00:06 they're struggling to refinance their £2.2 billion debt pile and it's raised concerns

00:11 over the future of around 4,400 of their branches. The group, which owns brands like Slug & Lettuce

00:17 and Be It One, is now in talks with potential lenders to find new loans to replace debt

00:21 due for repayment next June. Their chief executive is still looking on the bright side though.

00:26 Joining the company from Brewdog last year, David McDowell said "Our performance gives

00:30 me real confidence in the future and excitement in seeing our strategy come to fruition."

00:35 The hospitality industry as a whole has faced months of both rising costs and faltering

00:40 customer demand. The twin pressures leading to swathes of pubs and bars calling last orders

00:45 for the final time. Nearly 400 pubs closed their doors for good in England and Wales

00:49 in the first half of last year, almost as many as the whole of 2022. The costs of running

00:54 a business are up with fewer customers coming through the door also a contributing factor.

00:59 Are you one of those making fewer pub trips and have you switched to supermarket beer

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