Like many of his peers, Ralph Findlay, chief executive of Marston's, thought he had adequately prepared his chain of 2,000-plus pubs for the introduction of the smoking ban in England on July 1 2007.

He sold small land-locked pubs and bought bigger and brighter ones with terraces or gardens to appeal to single women and families. He built smoking shelters to appease smoking regulars and offered more food to cash in on the eating-out market.