460,000 jobs “at risk” if gov't does not extend hospitality support and include suppliers: UKHospitality
The trade body’s survey reveals lockdown’s impact on suppliers.
A potential 460,000 team members will find themselves unemployed if the government does not extend support to hospitality suppliers, UKHospitality said.
Citing numbers from its latest UKHospitality Supplier Alliance survey, the trade body said 69% of respondents are having 75% or more of their revenue purely within hospitality with the lockdown having devastated business with an average decline in trade of 78% and 1 in 4 suppliers not trading at all.
Two thirds of surveyed suppliers highlighted the importance of their services to an operator’s ability to re-open smoothly, with 82% of suppliers saying it would be important to have products and services being in place prior to re-opening.
1 in 5 suppliers will expect to close whilst 3 in 4 will have to make redundancies. With an average redundancy rate of 40%, UKHospitality says that equates to 460,000 job losses across the hospitality supplier sector.
Suppliers forecast that a six-month support should allow them to avoid redundancies with a further month helping them remove the risk of business closures.
“After months of little to no revenue and with a requirement to invest in order to play their part in the restart, the supply chain is at a critical point. Support now and they can play their part in ensuring the UK's world class hospitality sector bounces back sharply,” UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said in a statement.
UKHospitality is asking suppliers to contact their MP and raise awareness regarding this issue, with a template letter and instructions found on their website.
