Restaurants in crisis as more fail to survive UK lockdown

THE crisis engulfing High street restaurants intensified as the owner of Café rouge crashed into administration and Prezzo put itself up for sale.

as one of Britain’s biggest pub groups warned ‘a different mindset to eating out’ would hit business, Casual Dining group (CDg) called in administrators.

The firm, which owns Café rouge, Bella Italia and Las Iguanas, is the latest victim of the pandemic which has already seen Carluccio’s and Chiquito’s pull down the shutters.

Burger chain Byron is also fighting for survival and Frankie & Benny’s owner The restaurant group is closing 125 sites.

The collapse of CDg saw 91 of its 250 restaurants closed permanently with the loss of 1,900 jobs. The future of the remaining sites and 4,000 jobs now hangs in the balance.

Italian food chain Prezzo, which has 180 restaurants and around 3,000 staff, hired FrP advisory to find a buyer following weeks of Covid-19 lockdown.

The chain is part-owned by Us buyout firm TPg.

With pubs and restaurants given the all-clear to open tomorrow, all Bar One owner Mitchells & Butlers warned business would be tough.

a spokesman for the group, which has more than 1,700 pubs and brands including Harvester and Toby Carvery, said: ‘as pubs and restaurants re-open, consumers may have a different mindset to eating out, with health and safety at the forefront of priorities.

‘equally some consumers may not heed the measures put in place to restrict the spread of the virus, potentially putting our team members and other guests at risk.’

Mitchells & Butlers swung to a £121m half-year loss due to the lockdown having made profits of £75m a year earlier.

It said revenues dropped to £1.04bn from £1.2bn a year earlier, with the first half including nearly four weeks of enforced lockdown closure.