by Abby Henson | Feb 20, 2025 | Thought Leadership
April’s wage increases will soon hit in full force, leaving operators in need of smarter operational strategies to offset costs and maintain profitability. It will be no easy feat, with labour costs expected to increase by around 8.3% in total, before additional increases outside of legislation.
“This increase is just the starting point, to retain talent and ensure fairness, many operators will feel pressure to raise wages across the board, not just for those on the NLW. This could lead to a significant overall increase in labour costs.”
Alastair Scott, CEO of S4labour and owner of Malvern Inns.
Supervisors often earn just a bit more than their team, and sometimes assistants, working more hours, earn less. This issue also affects kitchen staff, putting pressure on the industry to maintain pay differentials, which is unsustainable.
We estimate industry pay could rise by 10%, depending on factors like the proportion of young workers and under-21s paid at higher rates.
Differentials aside, for an average site that takes £20,000 a week on a 30% labour ratio, this will be an increase of roughly £25,896 a year. Tackling this cost alone will require operators to plan labour more effectively, to stay on target every week and drive productivity in teams enough to keep reporting profit and not loss.
As a pub or restaurant operator, how do you plan on approaching these increases?
In our guide, we want to help you get ready for April by helping you face the upcoming cost increases with the smartest operational strategy. We cover everything from forming new habits (and what habits to form), to utilising data.
Download and read now:
by Abby Henson | Feb 13, 2025 | customer
Last Updated on 21/04/2026
At S4labour, we are committed to providing you with the best possible service. To achieve this, we engage third-party service providers, known as sub-processors, to assist us in delivering our services efficiently and securely. The following entities process personal data on behalf of S4labour customers and in accordance with contract terms between S4labour and the sub-processor.
We carefully select our sub-processors and ensure they adhere to strict data protection standards to safeguard your information. Our goal is to maintain transparency and trust with our customers, and we are always here to address any questions or concerns you may have about our use of sub-processors.
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| Asset Name |
Description |
| 3CX |
Support and service management. |
| Amazon Web Services |
Application hosting. |
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BACS processing provider for payroll services. |
| Delighted |
Support and service feedback. |
| Dropbox |
Disaster Recovery Backup Services |
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System alerts email automation |
| Microsoft |
Cloud hosting provider |
| monday.com Ltd |
Support and service management |
| PayCircle Ltd |
Payroll processing and service provider |
| Sendbird |
In app messaging functionality |
| Zendesk, Inc. |
Support and service management |
| Wagestream Limited |
On-demand pay |
| Pendo |
Customer experience management, user guidance, training and analytics tools. |
| Chargebee, Inc. |
Subscription billing and revenue management platform |
| Data Driven Marketing |
Data provisioning |
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Mobile push notification delivery service |
| Jira |
Development task and sprint management |
| Anthropic |
AI platform used in development and support |
Caxton Payments Limited
|
Faster Payments provider for payroll services |
by Abby Henson | Feb 7, 2025 | Sales Figures
The latest data from S4labour shows a slight increase in overall sales for January, with a year-on-year growth of 1.9%.
Sales in London experienced a significant rise, jumping by 8.6%, while non-London regions saw a minimal decline of 0.1%. Food-focused establishments reported a notable 2.6% increase in sales, and drink-focused venues saw a modest rise of 0.3%.
S4labour’s Chief Growth Officer, Richard Hartley, commented: “It is good to see the hospitality sector showing resilience, particularly in London where sales have surged by 8.6% compared to the same month last year. Operators will be prioritising maximising revenue before the estimated 10% increase in labour costs hits in April.”
by Abby Henson | Jan 7, 2025 | Sales Figures
Overall, like-for-like sales data show minimal difference when compared to the same month in 2023. In London, sales were up 5.5%, whereas areas outside of the capital saw a drop of 1.4%.
Food-focused businesses fared better, with sites up 3.1% compared to a drop of 5.3% in wet-led venues.
S4labour’s Chief Growth Officer, Richard Hartley, commented: “While like-for-like sales have remained steady, inflation continues to loom, putting pressure on profit margins. As we approach the anticipated price increases in April, operators will need to stay focused on delivering value, ensuring that they adapt effectively to changing economic conditions while maintaining customer satisfaction and profitability.”
by Abby Henson | Dec 4, 2024 | Sales Figures
Inflation beating like-for-like sales growth for hospitality industry, but profit under pressure.
The latest data from S4labour reveals that sales were up 8.5% in November 2024, compared to the same month last year. London saw growth of 9.9% year-on-year, whilst the sites outside the capital saw 8.1% like for like boost.
“Operators have a short window…before the effects of the budget hit home”
S4labour’s Chief Growth Officer, Richard Hartley, commented: “These figures show many great operators are meeting challenging consumer conditions, but potentially hide the pressures on underlying profitability caused by wider macro economic headwinds. Operators have a short window now to capitalise on improved sales and get to grips with the main variable costs before the effects of the budget hit home.”
