Jonathan Downey, founder of the Match Bar Group, has said he is considering ending a trial smoking ban at the company’s The Player bar because he believes it is losing the company money.

Speaking to Leisure Management, Downey said the company had introduced trial bans in both The Player and Milk and Honey; in the Player, smoking has been barred from the lounge and restricted to the bar area while the basement of Milk and Honey is also now smoke-free.

However, Downey said the results have not been positive for Match Bar.

“In The Player the atmosphere seems worse as a result,” he said. “Our sales are the same as they were before we brought the smoking ban in – but we had been predicting a 10 per cent increase. I’m convinced we have lost money.

“I’m seriously considering backing down on The Player. I think it has affected sales and more than that, it has affected the culture. I don’t think it has worked and it’s too much hassle policing people.”

He added: “One of the big issues is that licensed premises offer things people can’t get at home. As soon as we start making it easier to do things at home than in a bar, you are slowly chipping away at the great public spaces.

“Once we start chipping away at fundamentals like drinking or smoking in a bar we are on a very slippery slope.”

Downey also said that if the government introduces pricing rules to counter binge drinking, it must do it across the board and not just target pubs and bars.

“If the government is going to enforce rules about drinks pricing for the trade, it better do it in the supermarkets too,” he said. “The government needs to target any action at the people who are really taking the piss with price deals; don’t tar everyone with the same brush.”

Match Bar’s Milk and Honey members’ bar, which was opened in spring 2002 in partnership with Sasha Petraske, recently won best bar in the 2004 Time Out Awards. See award winners roundup p49 and also Raising The Bar, p52, LM July/August