Launceston publican sells The Commercial after 18 years

Launceston publican Garry Laskey told The Examiner on 21 October he is ready to retire, with The Commercial Hotel on the market for offers over $400,000 plus stock at valuation. The sale would end his and wife Donna’s 18-year run at the corner pub known locally as the Mersh. For hospitality buyers, it is a leasehold trading business with about 70 enquiries already logged.

Why it matters

Garry Laskey took on The Commercial with his brother Clinton 18 years ago, when the pair went into business together as equal partners. Garry and Donna have run the venue alone since early 2025. Now 65, Garry told The Examiner he is ready to retire and travel, with a trip to South Africa planned for next year and annual visits to Bali on the cards. “I’m 65 years of age so it’s time to move on,” he said. Cost pressure weighed on the timing too. Laskey pointed to fuel, groceries, wages and superannuation all climbing, plus a tightening load of compliance he described as red tape he now has to jump through for every small decision. Finding and keeping staff has also become harder in recent years, he said. The sale reads as a planned retirement exit rather than a distress signal, but it is a window into the cost base independent publicans across regional Tasmania are carrying as a generation of long-serving owners starts handing their venues on.

The numbers

The business is listed for offers over $400,000 plus stock at valuation, through agent Praveen Pant of Tasmanian Business and Property Sales. The listing has drawn about 70 enquiries since it hit the market earlier this year, including one from New Zealand, a reach Laskey said reflects how the venue is regarded beyond Launceston. He said insurance on the pub has risen from roughly $14,000 a year when the family took over to about $80,000 now, a near sixfold increase over the 18 years. Staff have received a 3.5% annual pay rise on top of superannuation contributions that have climbed to 12% under the federal guarantee schedule. The hotel itself, on the corner of George and Cimitiere streets and dating to the 1800s, trades across meals, a beer garden, a sports bar, live music and gaming machines. The building is held by Dixon Hotel Group, with the Laskeys selling the leasehold trading business rather than the freehold.

What’s next

Pant said a new owner could look at using the pub’s upstairs space for functions if they invest further, a change that would need the landlord’s involvement given Dixon Hotel Group’s ownership of the building. No settlement date or buyer had been confirmed as of publication, and nothing has been said publicly about what happens to current staff once a sale completes. Laskey described the business overall as beautiful and the pub as an iconic fixture in town, framing the move as a changing of hands rather than a closure of a venue that has traded on the same corner since the 1800s. The listing lands in the same month hospitality and tourism property has drawn attention elsewhere in the state, including the proposed Kangaroo Bay hotel redevelopment at Bellerive, which remains before Tasmania’s planning process rather than finalised.