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Students don’t want to stay out late and get drunk anymore, says pub boss

Young people drinking beer pints at brewery bar garden - Genuine beverage life style concept with guys and girls sharing happy hour together at open air pub dehor - Warm sunset backlight filter
Young people drinking beer pints at brewery bar garden - Genuine beverage life style concept with guys and girls sharing happy hour together at open air pub dehor - Warm sunset backlight filter

Students in university towns are not staying out as late or drinking as much as they used to because of the high cost of living and a better work ethic, the boss of City Pub Group has said.

Clive Watson, chief executive at the company, which runs more than 50 pubs across Britain, said students were coming home earlier from nights out.

He said: “Students work a lot harder than they [did] at university in my day… they have a better work ethic, plus they’re having to pay for a lot of it themselves.”

Mr Watson said partly this was due to young people worrying more about their health and the high cost of living.

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He said: “They don’t want to catch Ubers or necessarily [pay for] higher price drinks at two o’clock in the morning.

“If you can have fun in the pub up until midnight, they don’t need to go off to a late night bar and carry on the fun. I think they’re having that fun earlier in the evening, they’ve brought their clock back.”

Young people in Generation Z, those born from 1997 onward, have gained a reputation for boozing less frequently than their elders. According to charity Drinkaware, adults aged 16 to 24 are the least likely to drink more than the recommended 14 units per week.

Even beyond students there has been a broader shift away from late-night drinking, Mr Watson claimed.

“The days before Covid, of everyone staying out later and later to two o’clock, going out at nine, going to a pub and then going off to a late night bar or club or whatever, there’s definitely been a shift away from that,” he said.

“People don’t want to wake up on Sunday morning at 11 o’clock. They want to get on with their days, whether it’s a health thing or whatever they’re doing.”

CPG - Tarquin Williams, CFO, and Clive Watson, Executive Chairman.jpg
CPG - Tarquin Williams, CFO, and Clive Watson, Executive Chairman.jpg

He claimed the trend of ending nights out earlier had benefited pub companies like City Pub Group, which has tweaked its drinks menus to try and appeal to people drinking sooner by adding more cocktails.

The company said on Wednesday its sales had risen 20pc over the 23 weeks to June 4 compared to the same period in 2022. However it said like for like sales would have been higher if not for recent train strikes.

Mr Watson added while the level of inflation faced by pubs was still high, some cost pressures were beginning to ease.