Tough start to year for hospitality industry, says Nottingham pub and brewery boss

The Government’s support package to help the hospitality industry through the Omicron wave “won’t make much difference” according to one East Midlands brewery and pubco.

Colin Wilde

Colin Wilde, the managing director of Nottingham-based Castle Rock says the cash package announced by the Government before Christmas, won’t be enough to stave off the traditional downturn in trade in January and February – and that many operators will be dreading their February VAT payment.

A £1bn package of relief for businesses in the leisure and hospitality sector was announced on December 21, with one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises, plus more than £100 million discretionary funding will be made available for local authorities to support other businesses.

However, Wilde says this won’t be enough for an industry reeling from almost two years of the Covid pandemic.

He told TheBusinessDesk.com: “We are grateful for the support but in the whole scheme of things it isn’t very much and won’t make much difference. Seasonal trade has been down about 30% on what we would normally expect. The hard times come in January and February, and how we perform is going to be entirely down to whether we can trade properly.

“Q1 is always our hardest on cash flow; that’s when we’re paying December bills, forward rent quarters and VAT at a time when income is squeezed. There will be many operators not looking forward to their February VAT payment.”

Last October, Castle Rock Brewery said it had implemented the National Minimum Wage increases five months early as a “thank you” to its employees for their hard work during the pandemic.