Scottish pub trade suppliers issue cash plea

SCOTLAND’S £2.9 billion food and drink wholesale industry has made a plea for cash aid as companies face a further dramatic downturn in business, branding the latest closure of hospitality outlets as a “pulling of the rug again”.

The Scottish wholesale industry, which employs around 6,500 people, faces another huge hit to takings after the shutters came down on pubs and restaurants across the central belt.

The sector had staged a partial recovery following the original lockdown, driven in part by the Eat Out to Help Out scheme in August. However, those gains will be wiped out because of the 16-day hospitality shutdown, which kicked at 6pm last night. Wholesalers have already been losing business since the introduction of the 10pm curfew on the hospitality trade last month.

Colin Smith, chief executive of the Scottish Wholesale Association, called for the sector to a receive a share of the £40 million support package announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Unlike businesses such as supermarkets, Mr Smith said wholesalers had received no financial support from government, in the form of grants or rates relief, since the crisis erupted.

Mr Smith said: “I recognise it (£40m) is not enough, but the government do need to actively give us something, because we have not had anything up until now.”

Asked to comment on the expansion of the job support scheme announced yesterday, which will see the UK Government cover 67 per cent of the wages of those unable to work because their businesses will close due to Covid restrictions, Mr Smith said it was welcome “as long as it is extended to wholesale and the Scottish Government gets the consequentials.”

He added: “It is us that supply the NHS hospitals, the care homes, the prisons, the schools. We are in a precarious position that we are not going to be able supply those public sector contracts because the majority of our customers are now closed.”