Three in five licensed premises won’t have space to trade outside, managed operators and larger regional cities proving most resilient against pandemic: About three in five licensed premises will not have some kind of space to trade from when the market reopens for outside trading from Monday, 12 April, the latest edition of the Market Recovery Monitor from CGA and AlixPartners has revealed. The Monitor also showed the impact of the pandemic is particularly apparent in the independent sector, which has recorded a net decline of more than 5,000 sites since March 2020, while the managed sector has recorded less than a quarter of that. It also showed five big regional hubs – Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Sheffield – have all lost less than 3% of their licensed premises since March 2020, while many smaller cities – including Plymouth, Aberdeen, Worcester, Exeter and Swansea – have all lost more than 10%. When it comes to outside trading, it showed about 41,100 premises in Britain have a garden, terrace, car park or other area in which they could potentially seat guests – 38.2% of all sites. Numbers fluctuate widely between segments of the market, with four in five (80.5%) community pubs in England able to offer beer gardens, patios or other outside space, compared with just 11.9% of casual dining restaurants. Scope for outside trading also varies substantially by region. In the largely rural south west of England, just over half (51.1%) of sites have outdoor space, but the number is below a third in London (33.1%). In Wales, where hospitality is due to reopen outdoors after 22 April, two in five (42.1%) sites have outdoor space. But in Scotland, where venues may open outdoors from 26 April, less than a quarter (22.9%) have that capability. Karl Chessell, CGA’s business unit director for hospitality operators and food, EMEA, said: “With huge pent-up demand for hospitality and consumers’ confidence rising, outside trading could give sales a useful kick start – but there are a lot of variables at play. Well over half of licensed premises have no space at all in which to trade, though they could yet reopen in April if local authorities take a proactive approach and open up street space to serve on.” AlixPartners managing director Graeme Smith added: “The overhang of rent liabilities also remains largely unresolved, which means in spite of the clear pent-up consumer demand that exists, the hospitality sector is far from out of the woods.”

Costa kicks off 50th anniversary celebrations with free drink offer: Costa Coffee, owned by Coca-Cola, is kicking off its 50th anniversary celebrations this year by offering customers a free drink. From Tuesday (30 March) until Thursday (1 April), any registered Costa Coffee mobile app users, who scan the app when purchasing a drink from any of the 9,000-plus Costa Express coffee bars nationwide, will receive 300 points, the equivalent of £3, which can be spent in any participating Costa Coffee store or drive-thru across England, Scotland and Wales. Instead of a drink, the 300 bonus points can be used on any food item to the value of £3.