Little holiday cheer for European businesses
New curbs, enforced in response to a surge in COVID cases, has left many retailers struggling
Businesses across Europe have sought to survive, rather than prosper as usual, through the latest festive spending season.
Until recently, retailers had succeeded in urging governments to lift lockdowns to save their crucial period up to and just after Christmas.
The European Union retail trade association Eurocommerce noted that the four weeks between Black Friday, which fell this year on Nov 27, and Christmas Day generate 20 to 50 percent of annual sales for many nonfood retailers.
Festive lights sparkled brightly along the shopping hubs of London’s Oxford Street and the city center avenues of Paris, Madrid, Rome and Berlin as some determined Christmas shoppers defied uncertainty to go out and spend their money.
Businesses had previously hoped that the positive news on vaccine approvals would prompt governments to ease restrictions further, as more people are inoculated.
On Dec 2, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for widespread use, and the EU’s drug regulator approved it on Dec 21.
However, new restrictions enforced across Europe in response to a new surge in novel coronavirus cases have since closed shop doors once again and brought an end to planned family Christmas gatherings.
In addition, a growing number of countries and regions worldwide barred travel from the UK starting on Dec 20, and others were considering similar action, in a bid to block a new strain of the coronavirus that is sweeping across southern England from spreading further.
Alarm bells were ringing across Europe, which last week became the first region to pass 500,000 deaths since the pandemic broke out.
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and Bulgaria announced the restrictions on UK travel, hours after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Christmas shopping and gatherings in southern England must be canceled because of the rapidly spreading infections blamed on the new coronavirus variant.
Meanwhile, in France, Austria and Italy, ski resorts have been ordered to close at least during the Christmas holiday for fear of uncontrollable spread of the coronavirus.
The European Alps make up more than a third of the world’s 2,084 ski resorts, industry analyst Laurent Vanat was quoted by the Financial Times as saying. Its ski season typically produces 28 billion euros ($34.2 billion) in revenues, also about a third of the global total and almost 7 percent of the overall value of the EU’s tourism market.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the British car industry organization Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said on Dec 19 that the third shutdown “comes at the worst possible time”, as businesses face close-ofyear challenges as well as uncertainty and upheaval from the Brexit transition period.
Consequences of the restrictions will be severe, according to the British Retail Consortium, which said the UK government will need to offer additional financial support to businesses.
In addition, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry made calls for the postponement of taxes and rates for any companies forced to stop trading. The Confederation of British Industry called the latest restriction measures by Downing Street, which were announced on Dec 20, a “real kick in the teeth” for many businesses.
The confederation’s chief UK policy director, Matthew Fell, told Reuters that the government now must take a “fresh look” at how to support UK businesses through to the spring.
The wave of novel coronavirus infections in Europe had already led to the cancellation of most of Germany’s 3,000 iconic Christmas markets.
Christian Verschueren, Eurocommerce’s director- general, warned that any strict new lockdowns that close nonessential shops in the next few weeks or months would mean smaller retailers will “struggle to survive”.
“Some of our members are predicting up to 30 percent of clothing shops, who depend particularly on the Christmas period, will never open again,” the Financial Times quoted him as saying.
Activity in Britain’s services sector fell less than expected in November, while optimism has grown on the outlook for next year, according to IHS Markit/CIPS UK’s Purchasing Managers’ Index of business activity.