Euro 2012 a damp squib for pubs, says Charlie Chawke

ONE OF the country’s best-known publicans, Charlie Chawke, said yesterday he was “running the business to pay the staff at the moment” and that Euro 2012 had been a damp squib for publicans due to the lacklustre performances of the Irish team.

His comments came as new filings show three of his firms, Miltown Inns Ltd, Alazwar Ltd and College Inns Ltd, recording profits last year.

Figures for Miltown Inns Ltd, which trades as the Dropping Well, show that pretax profits dropped by one-third to €158,248 in the 12 months to the end of May last year, while separate abridged figures for Alazwar Ltd, trading as the Oval in Abbey Street, show it increased its accumulated profits last year from €683,242 to €701,184.

Abridged figures for a third Chawke pub firm, College Inns Ltd, trading as the Bank on College Green, show that accumulated profits rose sharply to €191,548 in the year to April 2011 from €11,981.

Mr Chawke’s employs more than 300 people at eight pubs, which last year recorded turnover of about €15 million.

Speaking yesterday, he said the European football championships resulted in revenues being 20 per cent down at his pubs during the course of the competition.

The publican from Adare, Co Limerick, said: “The team was so pathetic against Croatia that people lost faith.”

Publicans had counted upon the Euros providing a major boost to business, but Mr Chawke said they were “a major disappointment”.

“People didn’t flock to the pub as we thought they would, and they watched the games at home. The Euros didn’t work for us at all. It upset our business.”

Mr Chawke said that there has been “no great uplift” in business this year. “We are running the business to pay our staff at the moment. We are holding it together. We haven’t let any staff go.

“We’re in profit, but not as profitable as we would like to be. We are working very hard and keeping our heads down and keeping the bank off our back. We have great staff and hopefully we will be in a good position when the economy turns.”

Mr Chawke’s other pubs are the Goat, the Lord Lucan, the Old Orchard and two pubs in his home town of Adare.

He is currently renovating Searsons on Baggot Street and said that it will employ about 50 when it re-opens later this year.