Is a Marston’s CRP Pub Actually Profitable?

For a complete overview of the process, read our complete guide to taking on a UK pub in 2026.

Last updated: 24 April 2026

Most people considering a Marston’s CRP pub assume the numbers Marston’s shows them are what they’ll actually take home. They’re not. I took on Teal Farm Pub in Washington three years ago under a Marston’s CRP agreement, navigated the NSF audit process, built the real business financials, and in 2025 we had our best revenue year yet. But I didn’t get there by following the forecast they handed me at ingoing. This article gives you the actual profit picture for a Marston’s CRP pub — the costs nobody tells you about, the margins that actually stack up, and whether this model can genuinely make money. If you’re seriously considering taking on a Marston’s CRP, you need these numbers before you sign.

What a Marston’s CRP Actually Is

A Marston’s CRP (Community Rent Plan) is a tied tenancy where your rent is calculated as a percentage of your turnover — typically 7–11% depending on the pub profile and location — rather than a fixed weekly rent. This means your rent bill goes up when sales go up, and down when they fall, which creates a built-in profit ceiling that doesn’t exist in fixed-rent models.

You’re locked into Marston’s as your drinks supplier (the tie), you can’t use their competitor brands, and your business plan is assessed against their Fair Maintainable Trade calculation. That’s the level of trade they believe the pub should realistically achieve. If your actual sales are consistently below that, it matters to them when it comes to rent review time.

The upside is simplicity: you don’t negotiate rent annually, and your business naturally scales with local demand. The downside is that your profit margins are capped by that percentage rent from the start, and you carry the full risk if local trade falls away.

The Real Cost Structure Behind CRP Profitability

To understand whether a Marston’s CRP is profitable, you need to see the full cost breakdown. Let me walk you through the actual numbers from a typical 180-cover community pub like Teal Farm.

Rent (Percentage Rent)

At Teal Farm, percentage rent runs at approximately 8.5% of turnover. If you’re doing £500,000 annual turnover, that’s £42,500 per year. Simple. But here’s where most operators get surprised: Marston’s will also negotiate an upwards-only rent review clause, meaning your percentage can go up if they judge Fair Maintainable Trade has increased. It doesn’t go down if trade falls.

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

Your COGS — the cost of the drinks and food you sell — typically sits between 28–32% of turnover for a wet-led community pub. That’s your product cost before labour, before overheads, before anything else. At Teal Farm, we achieve around 30% COGS on drinks and food combined, which is solid but not extraordinary. Most new operators land at 32–35% because they haven’t yet negotiated tight deals with Marston’s or learned to control waste and over-pouring.

Your COGS margin is partly in your control (through ordering discipline and portion control) and partly dictated by your tie agreement. You cannot buy significantly cheaper elsewhere; Marston’s prices are what they are.

Labour Costs

This is where profitability is genuinely made or lost. The UK hospitality benchmark for labour sits at 25–30% of turnover, but best-practice operators consistently run at 15–20%. At Teal Farm, we average around 15% of sales on labour through careful scheduling, multiskilled staff, and ruthless attention to hours. That’s not standard. Most new CRP licensees start at 28–32% and wonder why they’re not making money.

Why the gap? New operators typically:

• Overstaff on quiet days because they’re afraid of running short
• Pay themselves a wage from day one (which is fine, but it comes from your net profit)
• Use casual or agency staff rather than building a reliable core team (agency staff cost 20–30% more)
• Don’t track labour hours against sales in real time, so inefficiency goes unnoticed

Utilities and Overheads

Energy, water, insurance, business rates, equipment maintenance, accountancy, and miscellaneous costs typically run at 12–16% of turnover. At Teal Farm, with our 5-star EHO rating and efficient operations, we run at approximately 13%. New pubs often hit 15–18% because they’re not yet optimised and because they haven’t negotiated supplier contracts properly.

The Profit Picture

If you do £500,000 turnover at Teal Farm profile:

• Turnover: £500,000
• Percentage rent (8.5%): £42,500
• COGS (30%): £150,000
• Labour (15%): £75,000
• Overheads (13%): £65,000
• Net profit: £167,500 (33.5% margin)

That looks excellent. And it is — if you hit those numbers and stay disciplined. But here’s what most new CRP operators actually see in year one:

• Turnover: £450,000 (because you’re building)
• Percentage rent (8.5%): £38,250
• COGS (32%): £144,000
• Labour (28%): £126,000
• Overheads (15%): £67,500
• Net profit: £74,250 (16.5% margin)

That’s still profit. But it’s half what the business plan promised, and if you’ve borrowed money or invested significantly at ingoing, you won’t recover your investment at that rate. This is why understanding how to calculate pub profitability before signing is non-negotiable.

Profit Margins: What You Actually Keep

There’s a difference between gross profit and net profit. And there’s a bigger difference between what the forecast says and what actually lands in your bank account.

Gross Profit vs Net Profit

Gross profit is what’s left after COGS. Net profit is what’s left after every cost — labour, overheads, rent, everything. At Teal Farm, our gross profit margin is approximately 70% (because COGS is 30%). That looks healthy. But gross profit covers labour and all overheads, so it’s not money you keep.

Net profit is the only number that matters. And for a Marston’s CRP operating efficiently, net profit typically sits between 20–35% of turnover, depending on how disciplined you are.

What Marston’s Forecast Actually Says

When Marston’s presents you with a business plan at ingoing, it usually shows net profit of 25–30%. That’s based on Fair Maintainable Trade assumptions — their estimate of what trade the pub should do. The problem is threefold:

1. FMT is often optimistic. It’s calculated on historical data and comparable pubs, but it doesn’t account for changes in the local area, new competition, or your personal ability to drive trade.
2. The cost assumptions are generic. Marston’s uses benchmark labour costs (typically 24–26%), which is already above best practice and doesn’t reflect your actual staffing plan.
3. It doesn’t include your personal wage. Most forecasts show net profit before the licensee takes a salary. If you pay yourself £30,000 per year, your actual profit is £30,000 lower.

The most honest way to assess whether a CRP pub is genuinely profitable is to build your own numbers from local market data, not trust Marston’s forecast. Talk to other pub operators in the area. Mystery shop your competitors. Check local demographics and employment. Build a conservative turnover estimate. Then plug in realistic labour and overhead costs. That’s your real business case.

Why Most CRP Pubs Miss Their Numbers Year One

I didn’t hit Marston’s forecast in my first year. Most new operators don’t. Here’s why:

Trading Build Takes Time

A new licensee inherits existing customers, but building new trade is slow. You need 6–12 months for regular quiz nights, sports teams, food service reputation, and word-of-mouth to gain traction. Marston’s forecast typically assumes you’ll hit FMT by month three. That rarely happens.

Labour Discipline Isn’t Automatic

On day one, you don’t know your quiet days from your busy days. You don’t have a core team of reliable staff yet. So you overstaff to be safe. That costs 5–8 percentage points of turnover compared to optimised scheduling. This resolves over 12–18 months, but not before it damages profitability.

Operational Inefficiency in Year One

You don’t yet have systems for stocktake discipline, waste control, or negotiated supplier deals. Marston’s supplies you at their standard pricing, but you might be able to negotiate better rates once you’ve proven yourself as a good customer. That takes time.

Personal Wage Expectations Are Rarely Met

Most people taking on a pub expect to pay themselves £25,000–£35,000 in year one. The forecast might support £30,000. But if actual turnover is 10% below forecast, and labour is 3 points higher than planned, your profit drops by 20–30%. Suddenly, your personal wage comes out of reserves.

Making a CRP Pub Work: The Systems That Matter

I’ve run Teal Farm profitably for three years because I obsess over three things: real-time labour cost tracking, cash position visibility, and disciplined cost control.

Labour Cost Visibility

Most pubs track labour costs weekly or monthly. That’s too slow. At Teal Farm, we check labour as a percentage of sales every single shift. If a shift runs at 18% labour, I know why — was it quiet? Did we have an unexpected call-out? Did someone work inefficiently? Real-time visibility lets you adjust immediately, not six weeks later when you’re reviewing the monthly accounts.

This is why best pub EPOS systems matter. Not for the bells and whistles, but for the data. Your till system needs to connect labour hours to sales data so you can see the relationship instantly.

Cash Position Clarity

Profit on paper and cash in the bank are different things. A CRP pub that’s profitable but carries high food stock or owes money to suppliers can still run out of cash. You need to know your cash position weekly: what came in, what went out, what you owe Marston’s, what you need to cover overheads. Most pubs don’t know this until they reconcile monthly.

Cost Control Discipline

The difference between a 20% net profit CRP pub and a 30% net profit CRP pub is rarely higher turnover — it’s lower costs. That means:

• Negotiating Marston’s drinks prices and getting volume discounts where possible
• Controlling waste: measuring spirits poured, managing food portion sizes, reducing spillage
• Staffing efficiency: running quieter shifts with fewer staff, cross-training bar and kitchen
• Utility management: LED lighting, smart thermostats, efficient equipment

None of these individually saves a fortune. Together, they move you 3–5 percentage points of profit, which on a £500,000 turnover pub is £15,000–£25,000 annually.

Is a Marston’s CRP Worth Taking On?

Yes, but only if you understand what you’re actually buying.

The Genuine Advantages

A Marston’s CRP provides simplicity: you don’t negotiate rent, you don’t hunt for suppliers, and your tie relationship is established. Marston’s is large enough that they have professional support structures — your Business Development Manager, training resources, and a clear escalation path if something goes wrong. That matters when things get difficult.

If you hit operational efficiency in year two, a CRP pub genuinely is profitable. At Teal Farm, 2025 was our best year because we’d optimised labour, established reliable staff, and built local trade. We’re now hitting forecast-level profitability consistently.

The Real Risks

A CRP pub is not a quick path to wealth. Your profit ceiling is lower because of percentage rent. You carry full downside risk if local trade falls — your rent doesn’t drop proportionally. You can’t easily pivot to a different supplier if Marston’s prices become uncompetitive. And if you get the labour numbers wrong, profitability disappears fast.

Most importantly, you need to answer honestly whether taking on a pub is right for you before you evaluate any specific deal. Running a pub is not a passive income. It requires relentless attention to costs, staff management, and local market dynamics. If you’re someone who can’t tolerate uncertainty or micromanage operationally, this model will stress you.

The Verdict on Marston’s CRP Profitability

A Marston’s CRP pub is genuinely profitable at the level of operation Marston’s forecasts. The issue is that most new operators don’t hit those operational standards in year one. But unlike some tied agreements, the CRP model genuinely rewards operational discipline — if you run tight labour, control waste, and build local trade, the profit scales with your effort.

For someone with hospitality experience, good cost discipline, and realistic expectations, a Marston’s CRP is absolutely worth considering. For someone expecting to earn £40,000–£50,000 in year one, or someone who can’t be disciplined about staff scheduling, it’s a harder sell.

Before you sign anything, know your actual numbers. Not Marston’s forecast. Your numbers. Use a pub profit margin calculator to stress-test different turnover and cost scenarios. Ask Marston’s for introductions to other CRP licensees and speak to them directly about first-year profitability. And understand that profitability requires real-time financial visibility from day one — not spreadsheets reviewed weekly.

Your EPOS tells you what sold. Financial visibility tells you whether you made money. Before you sign your tenancy agreement, invest in understanding your position. Real numbers beat hopeful forecasts every time.

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