Pub insolvencies reach four year high!
The number of UK pubs closing their doors due to insolvency hit 530 for the 12-month period up to 30th September 2019, a 13% increase on the prior year total, and the highest bankruptcy figure since 2015. Sterling weaknesses since the Brexit referendum have seen costs of imported alcohol rise, with a decline in young drinkers hitting pub profits.
I came across this article while doing some planning for Comrie during lockdown. What concerns me most is this is before Covid19 and what pubs and social clubs are having to go through at this present time. Yes there have been thousands of deaths and many more people ill, but when we eventually get out of lockdown who knows how the pub and club landscape is going to look. Then there are all the many hundreds businesses that feed off pubs and clubs.
The government have helped with grants, the furloughed scheme and bounce back loans but I do think that the leisure industry and especially the public houses and social clubs need extra help from the government. This is because Boris announced weeks before lockdown to stay away from pubs and clubs then add in the fact that these venues will be the last to open and with strict restrictions in place! Also the demographics of your typical social club customer are 60 plus which will make them less likely to go to their local until they know things are 100% safe.
None of us have a crystal ball but my betting is a lot of the pubs and clubs that were just getting by will not be opening there doors again, which will push up the numbers even higher from my original article that I found at the top of this blog post. Add to the fact how important these places are to the local community and this is not good news for the UK as a whole.
We at Comrie will be doing our best to help and work with the pubs and clubs that we supply fruit machines, jukeboxes and pool tables to. Some of our customers have been with us for 50 years and counting which is testament to our working arrangement but also they become more than just customers! Here’s to raising a glass of beer in one of our regular pubs and clubs in the not to distant future and hopefully celebrating the fact that Big Boris has done more the help this struggling sector…….