Pubs have lost £841m in beer sales during the pandemic
SCOTTISH pubs have lost up to £841 million in beer sales alone since the start of the pandemic, with industry leaders concerned that the hospitality sector will be in crisis long after it ends.
Representatives from the pub, hotel and restaurant industries gave evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee yesterday about their experiences of the pandemic and raised concerns about how easing of restrictions will continue to impact the sector and jobs.
Paul Togneri, senior policy manager for the Scottish Beer and Pub Association, told MPS that more than 200 pubs in Scotland, of around 4,500 prior to the pandemic, had been “lost forever” as a result of the crisis.
He said: “The pandemic has been the biggest crisis ever to hit the beer and pub industry and the impacts are going to be long-lasting.
“Prior to the pandemic there were roughly 4,500 pubs in Scotland and 130 breweries contributing around £1.66 billion to the economy every year, and paying almost £800m in wages.
“The impact we have seen so far is that at least 200 pubs have been
lost forever, 210 million pints in beer sales lost due to either the forced closure of the last year, or the trading under severe restrictions, and £820m worth of trade value wiped from the sector in beer sales alone.”
Mr Togneri said there had to be “support from both governments” in Holyrood and Westminster to return the sector to “the economic powerhouse it once was”.
MPS also heard from Stephen Montgomery, spokesman for the Scottish Hospitality group, who said that the organisation’s latest survey of members in November revealed that firms had on average £85,000 worth of debt per site they operated, adding that the amount was now likely to be higher.
Mr Montgomery raised concerns about the reasons behind some of the Scottish Government rules around alcohol consumption, and claimed the restrictions on hospitality businesses were not backed up by evidence.
He said he had asked for information from the Scottish Government through a Freedom of Information request, which took four months to receive, and claims it did not explain why hospitality was seen as a bigger risk of virus spread.
He explained: “We were asking for information on the decisionmaking on why the music ban was put in, why curfews were put in, why we were being treated differently to other sectors.
“The FOI came back to say there is no evidence base to say that hospitality is a place where the [virus] positively collates and is spread.
“That leads to the question, why are we being restricted the way we are, where nowhere else in retail, manufacturing or anywhere is under the same restrictions that we are.”
He added that he could not understand why people at weddings were allowed to drink alcohol in hotels but others were not and said it could “create conflict”.
Mr Montgomery said: “You could have three of four small weddings in one hotel, where they can have a drink and toast the bride, but at another table you’d have people on a first date who have to sit with a glass of water.
“If someone can tell me that the two sitting across from each other on a first date are more at risk than a wedding of 50 people consuming champagne and whisky, well I’ll eat my hat.
“The people who support our businesses all year, locals, would take umbrage to that if they saw a wedding in their local hotel where people were allowed to have that.”
His views on the alcohol restrictions were echoed by Willie Macleod, executive director for Scotland at Ukhospitality, who said some of the rules were “verging on the nonsensical”.
He said: “There are some inconsistent themes that are difficult to understand, [for example] the ability of people to consume any amount of alcohol in their hotel room.
“When hotels were opened last summer and there were restrictions on alcohol, and even no alcohol permitted with a meal, we were being given examples from hotels of people drinking in their room before they came for dinner, disappearing during a meal to consume alcohol in the room and then come back down.
“Some of the regulations are just verging on the nonsensical really. We are used to managing licensed premises, managing the consumption of alcohol, managing our customers, and we believe we provide a safe, controlled setting for the consumption of alcohol.”
Mr Togneri agreed, adding: “The logic behind [the restrictions on] significant life events being allowed to be a bit closer to normal than they have been previously, allowing alcohol at a wedding, a wake, another life event.
“You can see that’s important to people, of course, but the logic of not being able to have a pint of beer or glass of wine with someone from your same household is a little bit lost on us.
“We don’t have the evidence to show that it is safe in one environment but not the other.”
The group of industry experts also urged the Scottish Government to publish guidance for the reopening of the hospitality sector in good time, and criticised the late publication of guidance in the past.
Mr Montgomery, when asked by an MP about how he felt about Government guidance for businesses, replied: “What guidance?”
He said: “We are now less than 10 days from opening up outdoors and we still haven’t got any idea of the guidance, there has been no regulations printed yet. We’re on a whim.
“All the way through this last year has been last-minute with most of the guidance coming out at 8 or 9 o’clock on a Friday night, for it to be implemented on the Monday morning.”
Frank Whitaker, chairman of Aberdeen City and Shire Hotels Association, agreed but said he was “pretty clear about what I need to do and how to do it”.
He said: “As an industry we’re good at adapting quickly. Where I could be critical is the timing of when guidance is released.
“It is often at the last minute and it puts pressure on the business to get their head round it. If we had more time to do these things properly that would be better.”