Half of pubs in danger of closing – new survey

Rising prices, poor consumer confidence and falling customer numbers are all taking their toll on the hospitality sector.

A new survey from Vision-net, a business information provider, finds that half of the country’s pubs could be in danger of closing.

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The company stress-tested nearly 1,000 pubs (945) to find 49% of them in danger of collapse. It found 190 pubs or 20% of those sampled were at ‘medium risk’ of failure while 296 or 31% were deemed ‘low risk’.

Vison-net also stress-tested 547 hotels and 990 restaurants to find that 48.1% of hotels and 49.9% of restaurants run a high risk of failure. 149 hotels were deemed ‘medium risk’ and 135 ‘low risk’ while 183 restaurants were deemed ‘medium risk’ and 313 were deemed ‘low risk’.

The investigation captured 36% of the total number of businesses trading as pubs, hotels and restaurants. So far this year, the hospitality sector has accounted for 6% of closures and 6.5% of start-ups, according to Vision-net.

Vision-net’s Managing Director Christine Cullen agreed that pubs and restaurants had been hit hard and that the hospitalitiy sector  was vulnerable with pubs and restaurants exposed to particularly high failure risk levels.

Rising prices, poor consumer confidence and falling customer numbers are all taking their toll on the hospitality sector.
VFI Chief Executive Padraig Cribben confirmed that this assessment was not too far off the mark, if a bit extreme, but he remained optimistic hoping that a good Summer might boost trade.?“We’ve been told over the last two years by this Government that they are going to address the issue of below-cost selling of alcohol,” he stated recently, “It’s time we saw the colour of their thinking.” ?He added, “We’re disappointed and annoyed that the Government has not delivered on its commitment”.

Rising prices, poor consumer confidence and falling customer numbers are all taking their toll on the hospitality sector.

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