Three quarters of England's licensed premises remain shut — report
More pubs have returned quicker than restaurants.
Just under a quarter of England’s licensed premises have opened for trade in hospitality’s first week back for outdoor-only service, latest figures from the Market Recovery Monitor from CGA and AlixPartners revealed.
The companies said that a total of 20,832 venues were trading again by 15 April, equivalent to 23.2% of England’s 89,953 known licensed sites.
Re-openings have been more widespread in the pub sector than restaurants, with four in 10 (39.1%) of England’s food pubs have been open, along with almost one third of community pubs (31.6%) and high street pubs (29.9%).
For restaurants, where outdoor trading space is often limited, fewer than one in eight (11.8%) sites in the independent-led restaurant segment have opened, though casual dining restaurants (23.5%) have been quicker to return.
Regionally, openings have been spread quite evenly across the country, reaching a high of 24.4% in the Central and East, and a low of 21.8% in North England.
All licensed premises in Scotland and Wales remain closed until later this month.
CGA also released figures that show that those pubs, bars and restaurants able to trade on 12 April saw like-for-like sales rise nearly 60% on the same day in 2019.
"The first day of trading after England's lockdown showed a fairly solid performance and demonstrates how consumers were keen to enjoy their first drink out - with like-for-like drinks sales up nearly 115% for outlets that were open compared with the equivalent day in 2019. Food sales didn't fare quite so well, at 12% below 2019 levels, but this is understandable given that operators can currently only trade outside," said CGA's Jonny Jones, managing director for UK & Ireland.
