How Much Profit Does a Pub Make? Realistic Numbers for 2026

You have probably searched this question because you are either thinking about buying a pub and want to know what you are getting into, or you already run one and the bank account does not match the effort you are putting in.

Either way, you deserve honest numbers. Not the inflated projections from a business plan template. Not the doom-and-gloom headlines about pubs closing at a rate of two a day. Real benchmarks from someone who runs a pub and looks at the P&L every single week.

I am Peter Pitcher. I run The Anchor in Stanwell Moor as a Greene King tenant. When I took it on, our food gross profit was sitting at 58%. Today it is 71%. That 13-point swing changed everything about the financial health of the business. In this guide, I will walk you through what a pub actually makes, where the money goes, and how to calculate whether yours is healthy or haemorrhaging cash.

What does average pub turnover look like in the UK?

Before we talk profit, we need to talk turnover. Pub turnover in the UK varies wildly depending on type, location, and how well the business is run.

Here are realistic ranges for 2026:

Pub type	Annual turnover range	Typical weekly take
Small wet-led village pub	£150K — £250K	£3,000 — £5,000
Community local (wet + food)	£400K — £700K	£8,000 — £13,500
Food-led destination pub	£700K — £1.2M	£13,500 — £23,000
High-street or town-centre pub	£300K — £600K	£6,000 — £11,500

These are not aspirational numbers. They are the ranges I see across the pubs I work with and the industry data that is publicly available. Your turnover depends on your catchment, your offer, your opening hours, and how hard you work the opportunity.

But here is the thing most people get wrong: turnover is vanity. Profit is sanity. A pub turning over £700K with sloppy margins can make less money than one turning over £400K with tight controls. The numbers below explain why.

The anatomy of pub gross profit

Gross profit is the percentage of every pound you keep after paying for the product you sold. If you sell a pint for £5.00 and the cost of that pint (including wastage) is £2.00, your gross profit is 60%.

There are two GP figures every publican must track separately: wet GP and food GP.

Wet GP targets (drinks)

Your wet gross profit should sit between 60% and 65%. Here is what that looks like in practice:

Drink category	Typical cost price	Selling price	GP %
Draught lager (pint)	£1.50 — £2.00	£4.80 — £5.80	60 — 68%
Cask ale (pint)	£1.20 — £1.60	£4.50 — £5.30	64 — 70%
House wine (175ml)	£1.00 — £1.40	£4.50 — £6.00	69 — 77%
Premium spirits (25ml)	£0.70 — £1.20	£3.50 — £5.00	66 — 80%
Soft drinks	£0.30 — £0.60	£2.50 — £3.50	76 — 88%

If your blended wet GP is below 58%, you have a problem. The usual culprits are:

• Over-pouring — staff giving away an extra splash on every pour adds up fast
• Wastage — poor cellar management, out-of-date stock, line cleaning losses not accounted for
• Wrong pricing — not reviewing prices when suppliers increase theirs
• Tied pricing — if you are a tied tenant, your buy prices are higher than open market, so your selling prices need to reflect that

For a deeper look at how to restructure your drinks range for better margins, read our guide on rescuing your margins through a better drinks mix.

Food GP targets

Food gross profit should be 65% to 70% for a well-run pub kitchen. That means for every pound of food you sell, you keep 65p to 70p before wages and overheads.

When I took on The Anchor, our food GP was 58%. That is not unusual for a pub that has not been actively managing its food costs. Through a combination of portion control, menu engineering, supplier renegotiation, and removing low-margin dishes, we moved it to 71%.

That 13-percentage-point improvement on a pub doing £200K in annual food sales is worth an extra £26,000 a year dropping straight to the bottom line. No extra customers needed. No extra marketing. Just tighter controls on what you already sell.

The most common food GP killers are:

• No recipe costing — if you do not know exactly what each dish costs, you cannot price it properly
• Specials that lose money — chefs love running specials. Some of them are GP disasters
• Portion creep — over time, portions get bigger and nobody notices until the GP report arrives
• Waste — prep waste, plate waste, and expired stock that gets binned
• Supplier drift — prices creep up quarterly and nobody renegotiates

If your food GP is below 62%, that is your single biggest lever for improving profit. Fix it before you spend a penny on marketing.

Where does the rest of the money go?

Once you have your gross profit, everything else comes out of it. Here are the major cost categories and what percentage of turnover they should represent.

Labour costs: 25 — 30% of turnover

This is your biggest controllable cost after stock. It includes all wages, employer's NI, pensions, and any agency or casual staff costs.

Pub type	Target labour %
Wet-led (no kitchen)	20 — 25%
Community pub (bar + food)	25 — 30%
Food-led destination	28 — 33%

If you are above 30% and you are not running a serious food operation, your rota needs work. Common labour cost problems include:

• Too many staff on quiet shifts because the rota has not been reviewed in months
• Salaried kitchen staff whose hours are not flexed with trade
• Agency staff plugging gaps that better recruitment would prevent
• The owner working 70 hours a week and not counting their own time as a cost

For more on controlling staffing costs, see our guide on pub wages and labour costs.

Rent: 10 — 15% of turnover

If you are a tenant or leaseholder, rent is typically your largest fixed cost. Industry guidelines suggest rent should not exceed 15% of turnover. If it is creeping above that, either your turnover needs to grow or your rent is too high for the site.

For tied tenants, remember that the tie effectively adds to your rent. Your buy prices are higher than open market, and that premium is a hidden cost on top of your headline rent. Factor this in when assessing whether your agreement is sustainable.

Rates and utilities: 5 — 8% of turnover

Business rates, electricity, gas, water, and waste collection. Energy costs have risen sharply since 2022 and have not fully come back down. If your energy bill is above 6% of turnover, investigate:

• Switching tariffs or suppliers
• LED lighting throughout
• Timer controls on heating and equipment
• Cellar cooling efficiency

Other overheads: 5 — 10% of turnover

This covers everything else: insurance, accountancy, PRS and PPL music licences, broadband, cleaning supplies, repairs and maintenance, marketing, and the dozen other costs that nibble away at your profit.

Individually, none of these seem large. Collectively, they can account for £30K to £60K a year on a medium-sized pub. Review them at least quarterly.

What is actually left? Realistic net profit scenarios

Here is where the theory meets reality. Let us walk through three scenarios to show what a pub owner actually takes home.

Scenario 1: Wet-led community pub

Line item	Amount	% of turnover
Annual turnover	£300,000	100%
Cost of sales (wet 62% GP)	£114,000	38%
Gross profit	£186,000	62%
Labour	£72,000	24%
Rent	£36,000	12%
Rates and utilities	£21,000	7%
Other overheads	£27,000	9%
Net profit (owner's draw)	£30,000	10%

This is a realistic outcome for a solid wet-led pub with a good regular base. The owner is probably working 50 to 60 hours a week and taking home £30K before personal tax. Not glamorous, but sustainable.

Scenario 2: Community pub with food

Line item	Amount	% of turnover
Annual turnover	£550,000	100%
Cost of sales (blended 65% GP)	£192,500	35%
Gross profit	£357,500	65%
Labour	£148,500	27%
Rent	£66,000	12%
Rates and utilities	£38,500	7%
Other overheads	£49,500	9%
Net profit (owner's draw)	£55,000	10%

This pub is doing well. A blended GP of 65% across wet and food, labour controlled at 27%, and net profit of £55K. The owner has probably invested in a decent chef, runs events, and actively manages the business rather than just standing behind the bar.

Scenario 3: The pub that is haemorrhaging

Line item	Amount	% of turnover
Annual turnover	£400,000	100%
Cost of sales (blended 56% GP)	£176,000	44%
Gross profit	£224,000	56%
Labour	£128,000	32%
Rent	£52,000	13%
Rates and utilities	£32,000	8%
Other overheads	£40,000	10%
Net profit (owner's draw)	-£28,000	-7%

This pub is turning over £400K and losing money. It is not a turnover problem. The blended GP of 56% means they are giving away nearly half of everything they sell. Labour at 32% is too high. The owner is subsidising the business from personal reserves or running up debt. This is more common than most people think.

The difference between Scenario 2 and Scenario 3 is not footfall. It is control.

How to calculate your pub break-even point

Break-even is the turnover you need to cover all your fixed costs before you make a penny of profit. Every publican should know this number.

The formula

Break-even turnover = Total fixed costs / Blended GP percentage

Step by step

1. Add up your annual fixed costs. These are costs that do not change with turnover: rent, rates, insurance, loan repayments, salaried staff, utilities (use a reasonable average), licences, and subscriptions. Let us say yours total £180,000.

2. Calculate your blended gross profit percentage. Take your total gross profit (sales minus cost of sales) and divide by total sales. Express it as a decimal. If your blended GP is 63%, that is 0.63.

3. Divide fixed costs by GP percentage. £180,000 / 0.63 = £285,714.

That means you need to turn over at least £285,714 per year, or roughly £5,495 per week, just to break even. Everything above that is profit. Everything below it is a loss.

Why this matters

If your current weekly take is £4,800 and your break-even is £5,500, you know exactly how far off you are. More importantly, you can see that improving your GP by even 3 or 4 percentage points lowers the break-even threshold significantly.

Using the same example: if you push blended GP from 63% to 67%, your break-even drops from £285,714 to £268,657. That is £17,000 less turnover you need to generate. Improving margin is almost always easier than finding new customers.

Where the money leaks: the five biggest profit killers

In my experience working with pubs through Orange Jelly, these are the five areas where profit disappears most often.

1. Unmanaged food cost

If you are not costing every dish on your menu, you are guessing. And guessing always costs you money. I have seen pubs where a single popular dish was running at 45% food cost and nobody knew because nobody had done the maths. At The Anchor, moving from 58% to 71% food GP was the single most impactful change we made.

2. Overstaffing quiet sessions

Every pub has quiet periods. The question is whether your rota reflects them. Review your hourly sales data against your rota weekly, not monthly. One unnecessary staff member on three quiet shifts a week costs £8,000 to £10,000 a year.

3. Stock shrinkage and waste

If you are not doing a weekly stock take on your top 20 lines, you do not know what you are losing. Shrinkage above 3% on wet stock is a red flag. It means either waste, theft, over-pouring, or poor record-keeping. Read our guide on zero-waste stock management for a practical system.

4. Not reviewing supplier prices

Suppliers increase prices routinely. If you are not reviewing and challenging those increases at least quarterly, you are accepting a margin cut by default. Get at least two quotes for every major supply category once a year, even if you are tied on some products.

5. Pricing lag

When your costs go up, your prices need to follow. Most publicans delay price increases because they fear losing customers. In reality, a well-communicated 20p increase on a pint loses almost nobody but protects your GP across thousands of transactions.

What you can actually do about it this week

You do not need a consultant to start improving your pub's profitability. You need a calculator, your invoices, and a few hours of honest analysis.

Week 1: Know your numbers

• Calculate your wet GP and food GP separately for the last four weeks
• Work out your labour cost as a percentage of turnover
• Add up your fixed costs and calculate your break-even
• Write down the number that surprises you most

Week 2: Fix the biggest gap

• If food GP is below 65%, cost your top 10 selling dishes and reprice or reformulate
• If wet GP is below 60%, audit your pricing against current cost prices
• If labour is above 30%, review your rota against actual hourly sales data

Week 3: Build the habit

• Set up a weekly P&L review, even if it is just 30 minutes on a Monday morning
• Track your GP weekly, not monthly. Monthly is too late to fix problems
• Share the targets with your team. When staff understand GP, behaviour changes

For a broader set of strategies to lift revenue alongside margin, our guide on revenue levers for struggling pubs is a practical next step. And if you are working on a business plan to present to a brewery or lender, our pub business plan template and guide walks you through the financial projections step by step.

Results you can expect

Immediately: Clarity. Most publicans who do this exercise for the first time discover at least one area where they are losing significant money without realising it.

Within one month: If you address the biggest gap, you can realistically improve your blended GP by 2 to 4 percentage points. On a pub turning over £500K, that is £10K to £20K a year in additional profit from the same turnover.

Within three to six months: With consistent weekly tracking and ongoing adjustments, a 5 to 8 percentage point improvement in blended GP is achievable. That is the difference between a pub that barely breaks even and one that provides a decent living.

At The Anchor, the improvement from 58% to 71% food GP did not happen overnight. It took discipline, weekly reviews, and a willingness to make changes that were sometimes uncomfortable. But the result was transformative.

Common objections

"My pub is tied, so I cannot improve GP." Being a tied tenant means your buy prices on tied products are higher, that is true. But you still control food GP entirely, you control your pricing, and you control waste. Tied pubs can and do run strong margins. You just have to work harder at it.

"I cannot raise prices, my customers will leave." Small, regular price increases communicated openly almost never lose customers. What loses customers is poor service, a tired offer, and a pub that feels like it is not investing in itself. If your prices are fair and your offer is strong, people will pay.

"I do not have time to track all this." You do not have time not to. A pub that does not track its GP weekly is a pub that is flying blind. Thirty minutes on a Monday morning reviewing last week's numbers is the single most valuable half hour in your week.

"The industry is just tough right now." It is tough. Energy costs, wage inflation, and the cost-of-living squeeze on customers are all real. But pubs that know their numbers and manage their margins are surviving and even thriving. The ones that do not are closing.

The bottom line

How much profit does a pub make? The honest answer is that it depends almost entirely on how well it is managed.

A well-run community pub with controlled margins, disciplined labour costs, and an owner who reviews the numbers weekly can deliver a decent living. A poorly managed pub at the same turnover can lose money year after year while the landlord works themselves into the ground.

The numbers do not lie, but they do require you to look at them. If you have read this far and you are not regularly tracking your wet GP, food GP, labour costs, and break-even point, start this week. The information is already in your EPOS, your invoices, and your bank statements. You just need to pull it together.

If you want someone to sit down with you, go through your numbers, and build a plan to improve your profitability, talk to Orange Jelly. We work with licensees across the UK through our Growth Partner and Turnaround Intensive packages. Everything we do starts with the numbers, because that is where the truth lives.