Heineken improving 52 UK pubs including reopening eight boarded-up boozers with £44m investment

Beer giant Heineken is set to invest more than £44 million in improving UK pubs. The brewer said it plans to improve hundreds of sites run by its Star Pubs operation, creating around 850 new jobs.

It comes as the UK pub industry faces a challenging time, amid rising employment costs, while consumer spending struggles due to the cost-of-living crisis, rising inflation and increases in unemployment. However, the Dutch firm has also benefited from additional business rates support from the Government to help ease their cost pressures.

Lawson Mountstevens, Star Pubs’ managing director, said the company’s investment plan is partly aimed at boosting revenues to help the group cope with the recent “sustained increases in running costs”.

Heineken said the improvement plans will see the business invest £44.5 million this year into upgrades of 647 of its 2,350 sites. It said 108 of its venues will see particularly significant cash injections, with these all set for transformations costing at least £145,000.

Heineken said the majority of pubs are owned by the group but independently operated by locals, with sports-focused venues an emphasis for investment in the run-up to the 2026 football World Cup.

The pub firm and brewer said it has pumped £328 million into British pubs since 2018. It has already started work in 52 locations, including eight projects where it is reopening boarded-up pubs which have suffered from lengthy closures.

Mr Mountstevens urged the Government to reduce the tax burden on pubs to help ease the cost burden and support more job creation in the industry.

He said: “We can only do so much; the root-and-branch reform of business rates that the industry has been calling for over many years is urgently required, as well as a lowering of the burden of taxation on pubs, including VAT and beer duty. We are calling on the Government to support us in bringing out the best in the Great British pub.”