“We’re not going anywhere, and we’ll keep fighting, pint in hand, obviously”
The team at Northern Monkey Bar in Bolton have issued a message following the Autumn Budget(Image: Northern Monkey Bar (Facebook))
The owners of a Greater Manchester bar have spoken out about the reality of running a venue in the current economic climate. Northern Monkey Bar, in Bolton town centre, shared an update to its Facebook page about the measures it’s having to take to keep its doors open in a candid post that attracted a number of responses.
In a post entitled, ‘A little honesty from tour local pub’, the owners decided to lift the lid on running the venue following the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget on Wednesday (November 26), which amongst other measures increased the minimum wage again. While backing the move, the team questioned how bars, pubs and restaurants are expected to foot the bill.
Ryan Bailey and Liam Convey founded the Northern Monkey Brew Co in 2016, starting off by brewing cask ales and supplying then to a variety of local pubs and bars. Growing demand let to expand the business to create a microbar serving their own beers, alongside cocktails and food.
The post read: “A little honesty from your local pub… because apparently we’re all meant to stay quiet. When we opened in 2018, minimum wage for 21-25 year olds was £7.38.
“We’ve always tried to pay above that because we actually value our staff (wild concept, I know). From April it jumps to £12.81. That’s a 73.5% increase in 7 years!
“Now listen… we want people to earn a good wage. But maybe someone in charge should explain how small businesses are meant to afford it while suppliers go up, tax thresholds are frozen, NI goes up, beer duty will no doubt go up, and business rates “relief” is ending (translation: they’re going up too).”
The post went onto question the headlines about the minimum wage increase and how it would help with the cost of living, but said the reality for venues likes there’s was ‘costs rise faster than we can pour a pint and thousands of small businesses are barely hanging on’.
Northern Monkey, in Bolton town centre(Image: Manchester Evening News)
They also explained a decision they’ve had to make in relation to the bar, adding: “You might’ve noticed the bar has been colder recently…Yes, we’re now at the stage of saying “bring a jumper” because putting the heating on could flatten us. This is the level of chaos we’re working with.
“If this sparks debate …good. Silence doesn’t help small businesses, and we’re done pretending everything’s fine when it isn’t. To our customers: you lot keep this place alive. We’re not going anywhere, and we’ll keep fighting, pint in hand, obviously.”
Prior to Wednesday’s budget, the hospitality sector had been crying out for support from the Government as they grappled with wage hikes from the previous budget which increased national living wage, minimum wage and national insurance contributions (NICS). 60 Greater Manchester hospitality voices also signed an open letter to the Chancellor calling for urgent government action to save the region’s venues.
Backing UKHospitality’s Taxed Out Campaign they called for lower business rates, to ‘fix’ National Insurance Contributions that went” up in April and to cut VAT. Wednesday’s budget saw Rachel Reeves announce permanently lower business rates multipliers for over 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties from April 2026.
But UKHospitality warned that new rateable values used to determine rates bills were stark for hospitality businesses. Its chair, Kate Nicholls warned: “Wage rises, holiday taxes and monumental increases in rateable values have put even further pressure on hospitality businesses, as a result of this Budget.
“A 5p business rates discount is simply not enough to offset these costs and redress the damage it will do to business viability and job opportunities. This is exactly why we called for the Government to use the maximum possible discount it had the power to implement, which could have genuinely delivered lower business rates.
“Instead, we have a situation where hospitality businesses are checking their wage bills and rateable values, and their hearts are sinking at the eye-watering increases before them.”
Ryan Bailey and Liam Convey
Sharing Northern Monkey Bar’s frustration about the difficult situation they face, customers and followers of the venue took to the comments to show they support. One wrote: “You have been one of the go to bars since you opened and still one of the only places we drink in Bolton. If we have to pay a bit more on a pint to keep things going so be it.”
Another added: “I would happily pay more for a better quality beer pulled by staff who know the product well, can talk about it and look after customers. So for me, increase your margins to keep the good beer flowing. The culture needs to change so we are supporting local and national businesses as it won’t be done by Whitehall. All the best with it and keep at it.”
However, others were not as supportive, with one person commenting: “Your business model is flawed if you can’t pay your staff a living wage. Increase your prices or close.” However another customer pointed out the difficulties of running a venue and the fine line between profit and pricing, and the bar explained the putting prices up doesn’t mean extra money for wages.
Talking to the Manchester Evening News, owner Ryan explained: “I think a few people have become confused about what we’re saying. With the increase on minimum wage again, on top of all the other costs, it doesn’t corelate to what’s going on in the real world – people are losing their jobs because people can’t keep them employed.
“There are a few people just saying ‘up your prices’, but it’s gone beyond that, pubs have closed since he the first Labour budget last year, and you can’t just charge £10 for a pint of lager. We respond monthly to the challenges, so January we’ll close a few days a week to respond to supply and demand, but we’ve got people now paid a higher wage but they’re doing the job of two people, previously we would of had two or three, we can only afford to have a few members of staff now.
“The world’s going to be shocking of we don’t have pubs, we do need them, even if it’s once a month you visit. They’re a community hub, and we have some fantastic regulars. We’re not struggling cause we’re not busy but the overheads, they’re just not viable.”