A Dunfermline bar has hit out at the “underhand tactics” of a major pub retailer, after making a substantial loss trying to compete with its offer of two-pound pints.

Alex Flemming, general manager at the Elizabethan on Halbeath Road, has labelled the rival pub giant "irresponsible" and says Greene King's actions hurt smaller independent bars.

Greene King is a large pub retailer which has 2,700 pubs across the UK, including the Seven Kings in Dunfermline.

The company recently launched its two-pound pints promotion from September 4-18, describing it as a way of: “Allowing our customers to make the most of the final days of summer.”

In response, the Elizabethan dropped the price of a pint of Tennent’s to £1.95, briefly holding the title of the cheapest pint in Dunfermline.

The Elizabethan is located on Halbeath RoadThe Elizabethan is located on Halbeath Road (Image: Contributed)

General manager Alex Flemming said: “Our first response to Greene King doing two pounds a pint was to try and out-do them, which I think we did reasonably successfully.”

But Mr Flemming went on to criticise the pub retailer. He said: “Greene King are doing damage to all the independent operators in Dunfermline.

“We simply weren’t willing to allow a massive pub-co to take a swipe at smaller independent operators. It’s irresponsible and it shouldn’t be done. Pubs are already hard working enough as it is.

“What Greene King have done by this is put a price in a customer’s mind, where they believe that serving two pounds a pint is a profitable thing for anybody, and it’s not.

“That promotion cost us a fortune. It doesn’t matter how busy it’s been, every time I poured a pint I’d have been as well just giving people money out the till.

"We’re a Tennent’s heavy pub so a large proportion of our sales come from that product, and it already doesn’t have a big margin for us because there’s only so much you can realistically charge against your peer pricing.

“Yes, we were busier if I’m being honest, and we sold more Tennent’s than anything. I think the last time a pint of Tennent’s was that price was the late nineties.

"The customer is delighted, but for us it’s a horrible thing to have to do just to keep our customers from migrating elsewhere. So yeah, footfall up, sales of the product up, but revenue down.”

A spokesperson for Greene King said: “We've run the offer to help drive footfall into our local towns, cities and communities at what is often a quieter trading period.”

Mr Flemming’s comments came shortly after another well-known Dunfermline pub, Tappie Toories announced that it is closing due to pressures facing the hospitality industry.

He said: “We want hospitality to be a successful industry. It is a huge employer in the country, but we have to combat insane promotions like that because when customers go elsewhere, they sometimes stay elsewhere.”

Something about the reactive lowering of Tennent’s prices seems reminiscent of Dunfermline’s 2014 “pound shop price wars”, when budget stores competed pence by pence to have the cheapest items. However, with both the Elizabethan and Greene King’s offers coming to an end, customers won’t be able to participate in such a showdown.