Two in five licensed premises have trading space ahead of sector reopening
However, a “significant” number of these sites may be unlikely to trade from mid-April due to space limitations and staffing costs.
Around two in five licensed premises will have some kind of space to trade from when the market reopens for outside trading from 12 April, according to the latest edition of the Market Recovery Monitor from CGA and AlixPartners.
The new research shows around 41,100 premises in Britain have a garden, terrace, car park or other area in which they could potentially seat guests, equivalent to 38.2% of all sites.
Looking within segments, four in five (80.5%) community pubs in England are able to offer beer gardens, patios or other outside space, compared to 11.9% of casual dining restaurants.
CGA and AlixPartners claim a “significant” number of these sites are unlikely to trade from mid-April, citing limitations of their space and the costs of equipping and staffing. They expect the number of sites reopening will “probably be much lower, especially if the weather is poor.”
In the largely rural south west of England, over half (51.1%) of sites have outdoor space, but the number is below a third in London (33.1%). In Wales, where hospitality is due to reopen outdoors from 22 April, two in five (42.1%) sites have outdoor space. In Scotland, where venues may open outdoors from 26 April, fewer than a quarter (22.9%) have that capability.
The Monitor also shows that five big regional hubs—Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Sheffield—have all lost fewer than 3% of their licensed premises since March 2020, whilst many smaller cities including Plymouth, Aberdeen, Worcester, Exeter and Swansea have all lost more than 10%.
This, the companies say, suggests that the UK’s largest cities may be better placed than smaller cities and towns to rebound over the remainder of 2021, despite the collapse in footfall from office workers and tourists over the last year.
