Lockdowns cost UK hospitality £200m a day

As a result of the pandemic, Britain's pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels lost nearly £200 million per day in sales in 2020, with sales collapsing from £133.5 billion in 2019 to £61.7 bn in 2020, less than half the 2019 levels according to the latest UKHospitality and CGA's Quarterly Tracker.

As a result, UKHospitality’s Chief Executive Kate Nicholls and CGA Group Chief Executive Phil Tate have both called on the British Government to deliver a package of financial support for the sector to ensure as many businesses and jobs as possible are saved.

This 54% drop in sales income represents a fall of £72 billion (or £8m per hour) for Britain’s hospitality sector.

The news follows recent CGA research indicating that around 6,000 licensed premises in Britain closed permanently in 2020 and with severe restrictions likely to remain in place for several months, government aid is urgently needed to prevent thousands more business failures.
Sales from October to December last year were worth just £14.3bn—down by £18.7bn or 57% on the last quarter of 2019.
“These figures are simply devastating” said UK Hospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls, “hospitality was hit first, hit hardest and continues to suffer because of pandemic restrictions brought in. And sitting behind this massive loss of revenue is the dreadful, real impact on people’s lives and livelihoods across all parts of the sector and supply chain. It’s also yet another stark reminder of the importance of having an exit strategy from the current lockdown and providing ongoing support for sector businesses.
“Hospitality can and will bounce back and it’s in the interests of the Government to support a sector that, in normal times, contributes many billions of pounds in tax to the Treasury and employs over three million people. We need the Chancellor to step-up again in his forthcoming Budget to deliver a bold, wide-ranging package of financial support that ensures as many businesses and jobs as possible are saved and the sector returns to growth. An extension of the VAT cut and business rates holiday must be top of the menu.”
This represents the clearest evidence yet of the shattering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s hospitality industry, commented Phil Tate, Group Chief Executive of CGA.

Widespread closures

“With every week of restrictions, the sector loses more than a billion pounds of sales, hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs,” he said, “Widespread closures over December, the busiest time of year for so many restaurants, pubs and bars, were a devastating final blow in a year of unprecedented challenges.
“Hospitality has responded to the pandemic with courage and innovation. Businesses have worked tirelessly to protect jobs, to support local communities and when they are able to trade, to keep people safe. With a vaccine rollout underway there’s at least some light at the end of the tunnel and this sector is well-placed to help recharge the UK economy as 2021 goes on. But it will only be able to do so if it gets the extensive support that is now desperately needed to sustain it over the next few months.”
The UKHospitality Quarterly Tracker, compiled by CGA, is based on its Trading Index and OPM data on food and drink sales across the on-trade.