It has been three weeks since pubs, bars and restaurants in England were allowed to reopen and the hospitality business is – if not exactly booming – taking its first shaky steps on the road to recovery.
Data from chains including Pizza Express and Greene King show that sales in reopened venues had reached 70% of 2019 levels within two weeks of restrictions being lifted. And yet, beneath the improving overall trend, a picture is emerging of a patchy recovery that is leaving some cherished venues behind.
Three in five restaurants and around half of all pubs are still closed, according to consultancy CGA. Some of this is down to regional differences: Scottish venues were permitted to open from mid-July, and Welsh hospitality is still waiting for indoor service, due to resume on 3 August.
But more deep-rooted imbalances could prove harder to address. Larger, rural establishments with outdoor space – where social distancing is easier to manage – are beginning to thrive again, while small, cosy, independent venues – particularly in town and city centres – face a grim future.
This gulf is particularly evident in the pubs trade. Oakman Inns operates nearly 30 pubs in the home counties and Midlands, mostly in countryside settings with beer gardens.
“With social distancing issues – reduced capacity and no standing at the bar, for instance – we expected to take a hit,” said chief executive Dermot King. “But like-for-like sales for the first two-and-a-bit weeks were between 3% and 4% up on last year.”
Sales last week were even better: 20% ahead of 2019, boosted by clement weather and the chain’s launch of its own version of Rishi Sunak’s “eat out to help out” discount scheme. The chancellor’s plan, aimed at luring customers back to restaurants and pubs with a taxpayer-funded discount of up to £10, does not start until August.
Oakman has introduced an identical discount in July, funding it with savings from another government initiative, a six-month VAT cut, from 20% to 5%, on food and soft drinks.
King says the VAT saving has helped offset pandemic-related costs such as extra staff and supplies of hand sanitiser, with money left over for offers designed to bring in punters.
Meanwhile, many pubs in towns and city centres, which have already been wrestling with high rents and reduced footfall, are being left behind.
Paul Crossman is licensee of three pubs in York: the Swan, the Slip Inn and the Volunteer Arms. Drinks-led venues like his have little to gain from meal vouchers or a VAT cut that doesn’t apply to alcohol. He hasn’t felt able to open at all because of the nature of his premises: “Our pubs have lots of little corridors, lots of character. Things that are normally our strength are going against us.”
Headline-grabbing measures have tended to suit big businesses with the ear of government, many of which were better placed to survive even before government help arrived.
“We’re not an offshore company like [Slug & Lettuce owner] Stonegate,” he says, referring to the prime minister’s recent jaunt to the Crown & Treaty pub (owned by the same investment group) in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.
“The chief executive he is pictured with [in a photo opportunity earlier this month] works for a company registered in the Cayman Islands. It’s the same thing with Rishi Sunak and Wagamama [owned by major player the Restaurant Group]. Tim Martin [boss of Wetherspoons] is delighted with the VAT cut.”
Figures from CGA appear to bear out the added difficulties faced by smaller businesses in urban settings. More than 60% of managed and tenanted pubs – with ties to large pub companies – are now open, compared with just 45% of independent pubs.
Restaurants have been slower to reopen, but have fared better when they have, according to CGA: their sales in the second week of trading were 73% of last year’s, compared with 68% for pubs.
The Little Ships cafe and restaurant in Ramsgate takes its name from the hundreds of private boats that set out from the Kentish seaside town to rescue soldiers and sailors from Dunkirk in 1940. During this very different moment of national danger, owner James Thomas has benefited from a combination of luck and ingenuity.
The restaurant launched a delivery service that helped create a buzz, and brought new customers now that its doors are open again. But he is acutely aware that this may not last in a seasonal seaside town.
“We’re lucky being on the coast during July and August, but perhaps in September it will all go the other way,” he said. “There’s huge angst in the city: I was in Canterbury the other day and it was dead. I’m proud of what we’ve done and I don’t think there’s much more we could do.”
