Covid Hits Hospitality for £89 billion
As the grim anniversary of the beginning of the first lockdown approaches, analysis from S4labour shows that the hospitality industry lost just over £89 billion in revenue through the full year since March 23rd 2020, when the hospitality industry was first instructed to close. This is equivalent to 68.9% of annual revenue, representing an average decline of half a £million per site across the U.K.
The data shows that while there were huge declines for both wet and dry led sites, it was drink led sites that were particularly hard hit, slipping 78.6% in like-for-like revenue compared to food-led venues where the decline was limited to 62.1%.
There was a less marked difference between London and non-London sites, however, it was noticeable that wet-led venues in the capital suffered an 84.4% decline in sales, with little opportunity to offer takeaway or delivery during almost all variation of restrictions.
Scotland fared worse than England, with a 77% loss in revenue, and wet-led pubs in Scotland were the most affected category with an 88% decline like-for-like revenue.
Chief Customer Officer Sam Wignell added, during the last year, hospitality has had its ups but the downs have been significant and scarring for most operators. The figures are starkly clear, we cannot expect the industry to simply emerge on the other side of that loss still afloat and recover, even with pent-up demand.
