Pub, bars and nightclubs struggle to keep partying

The number of bar and pub companies going bust has more than doubled over the past year, an adviser to the sector said today, calling on the Government to look sympathetically on operators as it frames the emergency Budget due later this month.

The accountancy practice Wilkins Kennedy, said 23 pub, bar and nightclub companies collapsed during the first three months of 2010 alone – up from the 11 such businesses that went into insolvency during the first three months of 2009.

The failures took the total number of such companies to have gone under over the last 12 months to 87, compared with 79 in the previous 12-month period. By contrast, corporate insolvencies across the whole economy were down by a third in the past year.

Anthony Cork, a director of Wilkins Kennedy said: "What the pub and bar industry needs to see in the June 22 budget is an end to duty increases – the Government needs to be understanding of the sector, and not tax it out of existence."