Pub GP percentage: the real target

Last updated: 26 June 2026

Most pub operators quote a headline GP percentage that bears almost no resemblance to what they actually make on the till. You’ll hear “I’m on 68% GP” when in reality a 1% stock loss on wet sales quietly costs a typical pub £3,000–£5,000 a year — and most don’t know it’s happening. The difference between knowing your real GP and guessing is often the difference between a profitable month and a loss. This article cuts through the noise and shows you exactly what your pub GP percentage should be, how to measure it honestly, and what to do when the numbers don’t add up.

If you’re running a pub on spreadsheets or worse — guessing — you’re probably leaving money on the table. The good news: most pubs that move from a messy counting routine to a disciplined weekly line check claw back 1–2 GP points within a couple of months. That’s real money. And you don’t need expensive software to start; you need a system.

What is pub GP percentage and why it matters

Gross Profit percentage is net revenue minus cost of goods sold (COGS), divided by net revenue, expressed as a percentage. If you sold £10,000 of drinks and the stock cost you £3,200, your GP is £6,800 ÷ £10,000 = 68%. Simple.

But here’s the trap most operators fall into: your EPOS tells you what sold (the menu price). It doesn’t tell you what you paid for that stock, and it doesn’t catch stock that walked out the door without hitting the till. Your margin on a pint of lager is the difference between the selling price and the replacement cost — but only if you actually still have the stock, or if you’ve sold it.

GP percentage is the only number that tells you if you’re making money. A high turnover and a low GP can leave you broke. A modest turnover and a healthy GP can set you up. Most pub operators chase footfall when they should be chasing GP.

Why? Because according to Federation of Small Businesses data, the biggest cause of pub failure isn’t low sales — it’s poor cost control. Stock variance, theft, over-pouring, and forgotten wastage are silent profit killers. A 2–3% variance on a £10,000 weekly turnover is £200–£300 in lost margin. That’s not small.

Wet GP vs dry GP: the split that changes everything

If you’re running one headline GP figure for the whole pub, you’re flying blind. Wet (drinks) and dry (food) have completely different margin profiles, and mixing them hides problems.

Wet GP typically runs 65–72% in a standard UK pub; dry GP typically runs 50–58%. That’s a 15–20 point spread. If your dry sales are strong but your wet margins are slipping, you won’t see it in a blended figure. You’ll just see a “healthy” headline number and wonder why you’re not making money.

The same applies in reverse: if you’re running heavy promotions on food to drive footfall, your dry margin might tank to 45% whilst your wet margin stays at 70%. The blended figure looks fine. But you’re now dependent on volume to hit your profit target, and volume is the hardest thing to control.

For spirits, the problem is worse. Over-pouring hides easily. A free-poured 25ml spirit measure is often 32–35ml in reality. That’s a 30% variance. If you’re pouring £100 a day in spirits and you’re 30% over on measure, you’re losing £30 in margin every single day — nearly £11,000 a year. Most operators find out when they try to recount the stock and realise the bottle count doesn’t match the till sales.

Break your GP into three lines if you can: draught, packaged spirits, and food. This is where SmartPubTools makes a real difference — the cellar tracking screen lets you track wet GP by line and spot problems before they become expensive habits.

Realistic GP targets for UK pubs in 2026

The short answer: if you’re under 65% wet GP or under 50% dry GP, you have a cost problem. If you’re over 72% wet GP, you either have exceptional buying power (unlikely if you’re not a large group) or you’re running high wastage and don’t know it yet.

Most Marston’s tenants I know run 67–70% wet GP at steady state. Micropubs and specialist ale houses often run higher (70–74%) because they’re selling premium products and the customer base expects it. High-volume wet-led bars (student areas, town centres) sometimes run 63–66% because they compete on volume and price.

Here’s what matters: your target GP should be set based on your cost structure, not on what your mate’s pub does. Your rent, business rates, and wholesale buying cost are unique to you. A tenancy on a busy high street with decent buying power might reasonably target 69% wet GP. A rural free house with small volumes might target 71% because your waste percentage is higher and your buying cost is worse.

Set your target, then measure it weekly. Don’t adjust it every time the number moves. Stock variance is normal — 0.5–1.5% variance on wet sales most weeks is typical. Anything consistently over 2% means you have a real problem: measurement error, over-pouring, or stock leaving the premises unrecorded.

How to calculate your actual GP every week

This is where most operators go wrong. They work backwards from the till and assume their opening stock figure is correct. It usually isn’t.

Here’s the real process:

• Count your opening stock accurately. Dip every cask. Weigh open spirit bottles (not by eye — use a set of scales). Count every case. This takes 90 minutes on a quiet morning. Do it the same day every week. I do mine on Monday morning before the bar opens.
• Record all deliveries and stock movements for the week. Kegs out, spirits in, swap outs. Most operators miss this. A partial keg that gets swapped at the brewery looks like a delivery if you’re not careful.
• Count your closing stock using the same method. Same day and time each week, so you’re comparing apples to apples.
• Reconcile against your till. Opening stock + deliveries – closing stock should equal till sales (plus any recorded wastage). If it doesn’t, you have a variance. The amount of variance tells you whether this is measurement error or a real problem.

Calculate it this way:

Opening stock cost + deliveries – closing stock cost = COGS. Net revenue (from till) – COGS = Gross Profit. Gross Profit ÷ net revenue = GP%.

Do this every week. Not monthly. Not when the brewery stocktaker comes. Every single week. In my own pub I was running stock on a tangle of spreadsheets and still losing track of partial kegs and spirit measures. I built a simple count routine around a dipstick and a set of scales, and the weekly variance went from guesswork to a number I could trust within a fortnight. That matters because it lets you spot trends. One week of 2% variance is measurement error. Three weeks in a row means you have a real leak.

Why your stock variance is probably wrong (and what to do about it)

Most stock ‘theft’ is actually not theft. It’s measurement error, over-pouring, and forgotten wastage. But here’s the thing: from a profit perspective, it doesn’t matter what caused it. It’s still gone.

Draught beer hides variance in two places: cellar temperature and line cleaning waste. If your cellar is running warm, your CO2 levels drift, and you get more wastage (flat pints, gassy pints). If your lines are dirty, you’re pulling a pint of water and yeast before the beer runs clear. That’s typically 1–2 pints per cask per line per week in a busy pub. Over a year, that’s real margin.

Spirits hide it in measure control. A free-poured spirit is a margin killer. Weigh your open bottles once a week, and you’ll see it immediately. A 70cl bottle of vodka should weigh 875g (the spirit itself). If yours weighs 820g and you’ve sold 15 measures against your till, someone is pouring 35ml measures, not 25ml. That’s theft or poor training, depending on where it’s happening. Either way, you need to fix it.

Forgotten wastage is the silent killer. A dropped pint. A split keg. A bottle that went off. Most operators don’t record these because they’re small, but they add up. If you’re seeing a consistent 0.8–1.2% variance each week, ask yourself: are you recording every drop of waste? Because if you’re not, that variance might be real and legitimate, not a problem.

The number that actually matters is wet GP by line, measured against your till sales every week. If draught is running 2–3% variance and spirits are running 0.5%, your draught line has a problem. It might be temperature, it might be line cleaning, it might be measurement. But you can see it, isolate it, and fix it.

The weekly line check system that works

You don’t need software to do this. You need a routine, a notebook, a dipstick, and scales. Here’s what I do:

• Monday 09:00 — open the cellar, check temperature (should be 50–52°F for real ale, 37–40°F for lager).
• Dip every cask and partial keg. Record depth in pencil in a logbook. Note the date and keg code.
• Weigh every open spirit bottle. Record the weight.
• Count every case of beer, wine, and soft drinks.
• That afternoon, pull your till Z-read and note the net revenue.
• Calculate variance: (opening stock + deliveries – closing stock – recorded waste) ÷ till sales. If it’s under 1.5%, you’re fine. Over 2%, you have a problem to investigate.

This takes 90 minutes per week. Most operators spend more time arguing about margins in the pub. And the StockTap pub stock app can automate the recording and the maths — you still do the physical count, but the app handles the variance calculation and flags trends. That saves 20 minutes a week and gives you a clear historical record.

The key: do it the same time, same day, every week. Your brain and your routine will adjust. By week three you’ll do it on autopilot. And within a month you’ll know your cellar better than you’ve ever known it — which kegs are dying first, which spirits are moving fastest, where your waste is hiding.

—