MOST lunchtimes, Ken Monk, an 86-year-old former prisoner of war, strolls into The Goodrest Inn in Worcester for a pint and to catch up with the other regulars.

Monk has been popping into his local for 25 years. As he sips his pint of Banks’s bitter, he also likes to puff on a King Edward cigar.

But from next summer, if Ken wants to smoke at the pub, he will have to sit outside.

David Pickford and his wife Kerry, the landlords at the Goodrest, have invested several thousand pounds to build a new seven metre by five metre covered smoking area at the back of the pub, complete with decking, wooden tables and chairs and a wall mount to put up a wide-screen television on match days.

In the few weeks since it was built, say the Pickfords, customers have given the area a cautious thumbs-up. Ken, who used to work for Lea & Perrins, once owned by Imperial Tobacco, from which he collects his pension, declares the ban “unreasonable”.

As a veteran of the second world war, he is philosophical enough to accept he has endured far worse than having to sit outside to have a smoke.

The consequences for the pub industry, though, could be much more severe. The introduction of the smoking ban is the biggest change in more than 20 years; and far from taking it on the chin, pub owners are scrambling to ensure they will cope with the ban when it comes into force in England and Wales next summer — the government has yet to set the exact date.

The nation’s biggest landlords — including Punch Taverns, Enterprise Inns and Greene King — have announced spending of more than £100m to equip pubs with facilities to offer smokers somewhere pleasant outside to enjoy a drink and a cigarette.

Despite their best efforts, casualties appear to be inevitable. The British Beer and Pub Association estimates several hundred pubs could close as a result of a downturn in business because of the ban. In research published last August, ABN Amro, the stockbroker, suggested that after the first year of a ban, earnings before interest and tax would be down between 4.5% and 9.1%, depending on the pub company.

But the long-term outlook may not be entirely gloomy. James Ainley, analyst at JP Morgan, said: “We think that there is a risk of some downturn in sales in the short term, but expect that the longer-term impact on the trade could actually be positive.”

Adrian Fawcett, chief operating officer at Punch, has been overseeing the company’s preparations for the ban. He has been encouraged by the response to a DVD the firm sent to all its landlords that illustrates what has been done in Scotland and Ireland, where smoking bans are already in force.

“It’s a bit of a shock-and-awe approach,” said Fawcett. “The disc shows people saying that if you don’t do something now, you’re going to be in trouble.” The company has adopted the slogan “No Action, No Option”.

Pub bosses should know that by now. The smoking ban was introduced on March 26 in Scotland, and they have had eight months to assess its impact. So far, things have not been as bad as they first feared. “At the moment, the ban has not had the impact people thought it would and it looks like it has been benign rather than malign. But it is very early days,” said one leading leisure analyst.

Those companies that have updated the City since the Scottish ban came into force, such as JD Wetherspoon, Punch and Greene King, have suggested that turnover from drink and amusement machines has fallen since smoking was banned, but that income from food sales has risen. Further insight should come from Mitchells & Butlers, which presents results this week.