Good business idea and good luck to him. Pubs 'competition' isn't particularly other pubs, it's that people can buy booze at any time of the day or night for much cheaper that £1.50 a pint. He's taken over an ailing pub and made it more attractive to the locals, nothing wrong with that.
Perhaps to compete with J D Wetherspoon pubs, which mainly open at 8am? (They also sell beer not much dearer than the 'Pound Pub' anyway, particularly in the north of England).
good luck, lot of pubs are taking the pi55 on prices. I have some experience of running a bar and for example, we could by Stella for 89p and we sold it for £2 at the time the pubs where selling it for near £4 (few years back) and they could buy much cheaper than I could, so QED, greed, and they wonder why the pubs are empty and going bust. If this guy can cut the margins and still make money then that's the way forward.