Hospitality loses £80.8bn of sales in 12 months of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has wiped £80.8bn off hospitality’s sales in just 12 months, the latest edition of the UKHospitality Quarterly Tracker with CGA reveals.

It shows sales from the start of April 2020 to the end of March 2021 totalled £46bn, down by 64% on £126.8bn in the previous 12 months. The drop of £80.8bn is equivalent to around £220m of sales lost every day – or more than £9m every hour.

Describing the year as “catastrophic” for the sector, Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality, warns that we are not “out of the woods yet” and calls for further support.

She comments: “Hospitality’s ability to reopen will remain massively hampered until the Government delivers on its commitment to dropping Covid restrictions and measures on 21st June.

“Even then, with so many companies facing rent debts and business rates bills, after more than a year with little trading, many companies – and thousands more jobs – will be in jeopardy unless further support is forthcoming, particularly on tackling the rent debt crisis that threatens our recovery.

“Hospitality can help power the national economic recovery, providing jobs to people who have lost them, bring people back together for safe socialising and continue to serve those most in need in communities all over Britain. To do this however, we need to operate without the stranglehold of restrictions, and for the Government to work with the sector on a recovery plan."