Pubs won't survived until May without more support The boss of a large pub and brewery chain said: “lots of pubs will not survive until they are allowed to reopen by the Government:. Pubs are calling for the Chancellor to provide more emergency support to keep them a float.
The Chief executive of St Austell Brewery Mr Georgel, who had to make 100 redundancies in 2020 due to the pandemic, said in his letter that the Government had at least “provided us with some much-needed clarity on the roadmap out of lockdown”.
Chief executive of St Austell Brewery Kevin Georgel, has welcomed Boris Johnson’s “road map” to reopening the economy after the third lockdown.
He also welcomed the end of restrictions that prevented pubs from being able to operate viably in 2020, including the 10pm curfew and the substantial meal rule, which he said were based on “very little scientific evidence.
But however with pubs not allowed to open their indoors until May 17th, Kevin Georgel said:” many will face going out of business without more Government help. Mr Georgel, in an open letter posted on the St Austell Brewery website, said:” that while pubs can reopen their beer gardens from April 12th, it may not be commercially feasible for them to do so. He also said:” his company is now looking at how many of its own 178 outlets will be able to operate in April. But he warned that about 60% of all pubs will have to remain closed until May, resulting in a £1.5billion hit to the sector.
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But he warned: “The reality is that many pubs will not be able to hold out until April or May without vital financial support. Many pubs – those with little or no outside space – will not be able to reopen until May regardless of the Government making it legal to do so. “It simply won’t be commercially sustainable for them. As a business, we are currently working through this ourselves to see how many of our managed pubs it will be feasible for us to reopen under these circumstances.” Kevin said the British Beer and Pub Association had worked out that 3 in 5 pubs across the United Kingdom will have to remain closed until May at the earliest under the new regulations.
