Christmas rail strikes to cost pubs and restaurants £1.5bn
RAIL strikes in the crucial weeks leading up to Christmas will cost pubs and restaurants as much as £1.5bn in lost sales, industry chiefs have warned.
Hospitality bosses said the walkouts by the RMT union just days before Christmas would be “devastating” for companies already facing soaring costs and labour shortages.
Union bosses unveiled plans yesterday for strikes on Dec 13-14 and 16-17, as well as Jan 3-4 and 6-7. The lead-up to
Christmas is one of the busiest periods of the year for pubs, bars and restaurants and other entertainment venues.
Over the equivalent week on which the strikes are set to take place in 2019, pubs alone across the UK took 25pc of their December sales, equivalent to £582m, according to data from the British Beer & Pub Association. London pubs took 27pc of their December sales, worth an estimated £62m.
Trade association Ukhospitality estimated the sector could stand to lose as much as £1.5bn as a result of the industrial action. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of Ukhospitality, said: “Strikes will cause parties to be cancelled and celebrations with family and friends to be moved to homes. The loss of takings will be devastating.”
Paul Pavli, non-executive director at pub and restaurant group The Yummy Collection, said the union action had already torpedoed £70,000 of bookings during the weeks of the strikes across two of its London sites.
Mr Pavli said: “This is a killer. It’s the week everyone’s out having parties. We have an apartment on the top floor which was booked every single day that week for £500 per night. The end of that week is the World Cup Final. It couldn’t be a worse week.”
Royal Mail strikes will go ahead in the run-up to Christmas as the union representing postal workers is set to reject a renewed offer of a 9pc pay rise spread over 18 months, rather than two years. The Communication Workers Union is understood to be preparing to announce it will reject the terms in its dispute over pay and conditions.