Rising costs and falling sales: The spending power crisis is hitting legendary British pubs hard, where the number of bankruptcies in the past year has risen by 83% compared to the previous year, according to British auditing firm UHY Hacker Young.
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“After a difficult period during the pandemic, many pubs and bars are left with very little savings or the ability to borrow more,” and for some, “the current economic downturn has been their latest plunge into bankruptcy,” the company described in a statement Monday .
During the COVID-19 pandemic, government aid had kept many businesses afloat. But in 2022, 512 pubs filed for bankruptcy, up from 280 the year before, at a time when energy prices were skyrocketing and straining company budgets, the statement said.
At the same time, the cost-of-living crisis has “affected consumer habits, making them less likely to spend on “non-essentials,” continues the company, for which rail workers’ wage strikes have multiplied in recent months in the country, too Customers turned away from city center pubs.
Pub numbers have been slowly declining across the country for several decades, but “recent shocks such as the pandemic and the energy crisis have put (these establishments) under greater pressure than ever,” according to industry body British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).
For its part, before presenting the budget in Parliament on March 15, the organization called on the government to “invest in pubs and breweries now or lose them forever”, particularly through a more favorable tax regime.
“After nearly three extremely difficult years due to lockdowns, an energy crisis, disrupted supply chains, strikes and a dramatic drop in consumer confidence,” the industry is at a turning point, the BBPA asserts.