Rail strikes: Hospitality warns of 'devastating' impact on trade

13 December 2022 by
Rail strikes: Hospitality warns of 'devastating' impact on trade

Hospitality businesses are seeing Christmas bookings cancelled and party sizes reduced due to rail strikes this week.

Maurice Abboudi, executive director at K10, which has four sushi restaurants in the city of London, said he was budgeting for a 20-25% decrease in sales.

Members of the RMT union will walk out on 13, 14, 16 and 17 December and on 3, 4, 6 and 7 January in an ongoing dispute over pay and working conditions, meaning only around 20% of rail services will run.

Abboudi told The Caterer: "It's absolutely devastating. We're trying to plan ahead and give people holidays, but it's very difficult to manage. If this goes on for another year, it's going to have a devastating effect on a lot of people.

"We're hoping that [this] week will still be busy with Christmas parties and people still coming in but there will be an effect on trade."

Abboudi added that on days where there were both tube and rail strikes his restaurants saw around an 80% drop in sales.

The late-night hospitality sector is estimated to lose over £2b in revenue due to the industrial action, according to the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA).

RMT members from Network Rail voted to reject the latest pay offer from company bosses on Monday, meaning strike action from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on December 27 and into the new year will go ahead.

"The government cannot ignore the escalating situation any longer," said Michael Kill, chief executive of the NTIA.

"Our sector is one of the hardest hit by the rail strikes, first to close and last to open during the pandemic. The current circumstances are critically impacting businesses and will require a government intervention and further support for businesses at the sharpest end of this crisis."

Network Rail said the strikes were "deeply frustrating" and urged passengers to only travel by train "if absolutely necessary".

Image: Octus Photography / Shutterstock

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media Group is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking