Frustrated by the increasing requirements of health and safety legislation, the smoking ban and being undercut by supermarkets, David Edes is set to convert the Rigger into flats or commercial premises – unless someone makes him an offer he can't refuse.

His decision indicates changed days in a trade that has been hit by a welter of new rules and regulations and which is set to see more still.

The fortunes of the Rigger have dovetailed with the ups and downs of the Nigg yard since it first opened its doors 33 years ago.

Asked about his reasons, Mr Edes (53) said, "I feel that the licensed trade is finished as far as the small owner run independent pubs go.

"Health and safety, food hygiene regulations, the smoking ban, minimum wage, minimum holidays — soon to rise to five weeks a year — and competing with Tesco and other supermarkets selling alcohol cheaper than I can buy it from the brewers. Sky want £375 per month to show sport, and the bigger the business turnover the higher the rates bill."

Looking ahead to costly new regulations coming into force in 2009, Mr Edes — who has 40 years experience in the licensed trade - said, "I've been in this game a long time and it has changed."

He has already lodged outline proposals for a redevelopment of the site that features commercial units on the ground floor and flats up above. While the conversion work would cost an estimated £300,000, he said he would keep his options open with regard to carrying out the work himself or selling it on.

The bar's peak business years have coincided with upsurges at the now moribund Nigg yard from which, says Mr Edes, a "Rigger Express" used to take drouthy workers straight to the pub.

Admitting that the bar "has not made a lot of money in the last seven years", he said, "So many customers have said 'you can't close the Rigger!' The option I've offered everyone is buy it! I've even had the keys in my hand and said, 'There you are — give me £250,000 and its yours'. It has gone up and down with Nigg and at one point when Nigg went flat I nearly went bankrupt. I worked at the Pru and ploughed the money back into the pub."

Pointing to market demand, he said he had not been able to identify a vacant shop in Alness High Street and that the booming property market there also made the development of flats a logical proposition.

He said that converting the lounge bar at the Rigger into accommodation was "probably the best move I ever made" as it left him well placed to house the migrant workers who began to arrive in the area in 2003. Without that, the bar would not have survived, he admitted.

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