Pubs and restaurants’ devastating £86bn hole
THE pandemic was like ‘ an asteroid that hit the earth’ for the hospitality industry with pubs and restaurants missing out on £86 billion – or £1.7billion per week – of sales.
Chains were forced to cull thousands of outlets and hundreds of thousands of staff with a total of 11,900 licensed premises shutting their doors since December 2019 and 660,000 jobs disappearing.
Those that have survived can open outdoor areas from April 12 but must wait until May 17 before doing so indoors.
Less than a fifth of restaurant chains have outdoor seating, meaning many will be unable to reopen, while pubs have said that just 17 per cent of pubs’ capacity will open outdoors next month.
The industry has been given a glimmer of hope as economists predict customer will unleash £180billion of cash saved in lockdown in a hoped-for repeat of the ‘Roaring 20s’.
Bookings have also boomed with some restaurant chains reporting 1,000 bookings ahead of the reopening in April – despite the fact premises will not be restrictions free until June 21.
Bosses are demanding ministers use the vaccine rollout success to allow pubs, bars and restaurants to reopen indoors alongside ‘non-essential’ shops on April 12.
Tim Martin, chairman of Wetherspoon, which has 875 pubs, said yesterday: ‘The future of the industry, and the UK economy, depends on a consistent set of sensible policies, and the ending of lockdowns and tier systems, which have created economic and social mayhem and colossal debts, with no apparent health benefits.’
A string of household names have been forced to close outlets in the pandemic. Frankie & Benny’s shut 120 restaurants and Pizza Express 67.
Restaurant chain Carluccio’s was one of the first chains to collapse into administration, in March last year, before it was rescued, though it was forced to shed 1,000 jobs to survive.
Mark Jones, its chief executive at the time, told the BBC yesterday: ‘This [the pandemic] was the restaurant industry’s asteroid that hit the earth and sped up the evolution of the high street.
‘If you went into the pandemic in a weakened position without cash reserves it was going to be very difficult to survive.’