Speaking on BigHospaility's latest United We Stand podcast, David Abrahamovitch warns that social distancing measures in hospitality businesses including a reduction of covers will make many of his sites nonviable.
“Our models just don’t work without significant footfall. Most restaurant businesses can’t survive a 10% drop in customer numbers let alone a 50% drop. There’s no point reopening if you’re just going to lose money,” he says.
On top of this, support from Government - including the option to furlough staff - and landlords is likely to dry up post lockdown, making re-opening in a difficult and uncertain environment even tougher.
“And you also have the added pressure of the cash intensity required to get re-opened,” he says. “There’s stock to buy and who knows what’s going to happen with credit in the supply chain.
"It’s cash intensive to re-open and potentially fund periods of losses when trade is going to be a fraction of what it was before lockdown.
"This is the scary bit for me - it’s even scarier than where we are today.”
#UnitedWeStand has been created by William Reed hospitality titles BigHospitality, Restaurant magazine and Morning Advertiser and is supported by Arla Pro, Britvic, Coca-Cola European Partners, McCain and Unilever Food Solutions.
To download this podcast via iTunes click here.
