Appetite for Yorkshire restaurants on the up

YORKSHIRE’S hospitality sector is having a stellar pre-Christmas period, putting in a “strong performance” before the January lull according to insolvency trade body R3.

The county boasts the biggest number of Michelin-starred restaurants compared to the other UK counties, according to R3, including The Man Behind the Curtain, which gained its first Michelin star this year becoming the only Michelin-starred eatery in Leeds.

The Yorkshire restaurant sector is outperforming the UK average in other ways as well, with the level of restaurants at a ‘higher than normal’ risk of insolvency falling, according to R3.

The proportion of Yorkshire restaurants with a higher than normal risk of insolvency in November fell by nearly 0.5%, to 38%.

In the UK as a whole, 40% of restaurants at higher than normal risk. Restaurants tend to have one of the highest insolvency risks of the sectors tracked.

These latest figures mean that 1,114 of the region’s 2,988 active restaurants are considered to have a higher than normal risk of insolvency. This makes the region’s restaurant sector the fifth best performing of the 12 regions surveyed across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Adrian Berry, chair of R3 in Yorkshire and restructuring partner at Deloitte LLP, commented: “These latest figures show that the region’s restaurants are entering their busiest time of the year in a relatively healthy position which is particularly reassuring as January is traditionally a tough time in the sector.

“In the New Year, not only do restaurants tend to suffer from a curb in consumer spending after festive excesses, they are also faced with the challenge of rent quarter day.”

Mr Berry continues: “We are fortunate that the region is well-served by a varied restaurant scene and, notably, has the largest number of Michelin starred restaurants of any county. Added to that, recent announcements from a number of highly acclaimed restaurant operators that they will be opening new ventures in the region means the outlook for 2016 looks promising.”

 

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