Covid wipes £9m per hour off UK pub and restaurant sales – totalling £81bn in a year
The Covid-19 pandemic has wiped £80.8bn off UK pub and restaurant sales after venues were forced to close or operate under strict restrictions for much of the last 12 months.
The latest figures showed that sales from the start of April 2020 – a week after the first lockdown began – to the end of March this year totalled £46bn.
That represents a fall in sales of 64 per cent and is equivalent to around £220m of sales lost every day – or £9m, according to trade organisation UK Hospitality.
Pubs and restaurants in England have been able to trade outdoors since 12 April but will not be able to resume indoor service until 17 May at the earliest. Social distancing rules are not expected to be lifted before 21 June.
Restrictions that have been in place over the last 12 months – ranging from full closure to a 10pm closure to the rule of six – have prompted the permanent closure of many pubs and restaurants.
Research by CGA and Alixpartners recently revealed that around 12,000 licensed premises closed across Britain between January last year and March 2021.
Many are still in danger of collapse, particularly those without access to any outdoor space or those that are too small to enable safe social distancing.
UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls today warned that the sector is “by no means out of the woods yet”.
“Hospitality’s ability to reopen will remain massively hampered until the government delivers on its commitment to dropping Covid restrictions and measures on 21 June,” Nicholls said.
“Even then, with so many companies facing rent debts and business rates bills, after more than a year with little trading, many companies – and thousands more jobs – will be in jeopardy unless further support is forthcoming, particularly on tackling the rent debt crisis that threatens our recovery.”