Zoe Matthews, 55, who owns the Six Bells in Burghfield with her business partner Debbie Rumblow says that it is a weekly task to keep their heads above water.
“We struggle every week to be honest with you,” Ms Matthews said. “We’re a village pub and there’s another pub directly opposite us.
“We are two different entities completely. They do Indian takeaways and we’re basically just a straight up boozer, and we always traditionally have been”
Both women took over the pub in February 2021 during the covid pandemic. It had been previously ran by another woman for 27 years before she passed away.
Ms Matthews said that The Six Bells had always been her local as she has lived in the area for over 30 years.
After Ms Matthews’s husband passed away in 2020, he left her some money which she then partly used to purchase the pub.
“We put our heads together and thought, shall we make a go of this?” She said. “We both decided to just do it and here we are today.”
Ms Matthews said that during the first few years, the pair saw great success, but over the course of 2024 the pub has really struggled.
“If you don’t put something on at least once or twice a month you are in real trouble,” she said.
“We do have our good nights. Thursday night is our quiz night which always sees a good turnout. But during summer if you haven’t got the weather then no one comes.”
Ms Matthews said that during the summer of 2023, which saw a considerable amount of rain, the pub had a terrible time keeping afloat.
“I think people are cautious about the way the world is going so maybe don’t want to spend too much money, but honestly it is a dying trade,” she continued.
“Price increases, the cost of living, gas and electric has more than doubled since January of last year. Having to take more and more money to cover these costs.”
Ms Matthews said that the pub tries to keep their prices reasonable and are probably one of the cheaper pubs in their area.
“We don’t want to alienate our locals but we also need to make some money,” she said. “It is really hard.”
