On 11 July, 2025, UKHospitality launched the #TaxedOut campaign, positioning it as an assertive call to government to reverse damaging tax policies introduced in the October 2024 Budget. By targeting employment taxes (NICs), business rates and high VAT, the campaign is striving for urgent reform to prevent widespread closures, job losses and stagnation in a sector pivotal to employment and local economies. 

Between October 2024 and May 2025, the hospitality industry lost 69,000 jobs – a reversal compared to the 18,000 jobs added during the same period in 2024. 

UKHospitality estimates that on average 84,000 jobs have been lost in seven months since the Budget, roughly three times the scale of the broader economy. 

Worryingly, a third of hospitality businesses report operating at a loss, with 76% increasing prices and 63% reducing staff hours or opening times.

Industry bosses estimate the tax hikes cost as much as £25 billion across employment related taxes, which has led to job cuts, frozen hiring and reduced investment. The sector now accounts for 45% of national job losses since the Budget – a stark contrast with its usual growth trajectory. 

In response, businesses are scaling back operations: many cutting trading hours, capping staffing, or even halting recruitment for the busy summer season.

Here, we share with you three key reasons from our own industry leading clients, as to why they turned to technology to combat the current economic storm. 

Stephen Seymour, vice president of Technology, Service Inspired Restaurants (SIR Corp), said: “We use ConnectSmart® Host in managing table efficiency and how we seat guests appropriately at the right size table for the right size parties. ConnectSmart® Host shows us what tables we have available, what party sizes are coming into the restaurant, so that we can move parties as they join the waitlist. It allows the technology to communicate with the host and the guest at the same time. We can send them a text message and they can reply directly through ConnectSmart® Host. It is critical for us to take full advantage of that efficiency, because when we can maximise business flow, we’re maximising the guest experience.”

“Without that seating efficiency you are in a compromised position around building the most profitable business model. Seating your guests efficiently means more money on the bottom line. Our increase in sales based on seating efficiency with ConnectSmart Host® is around 2%.” 

“We know that typically labour accounts for 25-40% of a restaurant’s revenue. For many restaurants, even a 1–2% improvement in labour efficiency can significantly boost net profit margins, which often sit below 10%. “I would say ConnectSmart® Host has allowed us to save upwards of 4-5 hours a day. Between 1-2 hours at lunch and 2-3 hours at dinner,” concludes Seymour. 

Filippo La Gattuta, executive chef of Big Mamma Group, said: “We go to great lengths to source and celebrate our produce in our dishes. If each dish is not the best that it can possibly be, we know we will fail. If we provide bad execution of that dish, we also fail. This is where QSR Automations comes into play, quite like our psychic partner. They have a naturally attuned affinity into our passion and respect for our produce and suppliers, together with how important it is for us to deliver on our promises to clients. This is why we fit so well.”

“Installing QSR Automation’s ConnectSmart® Kitchen technology has been a huge game changer. It is not only incredibly helpful during busy services, as it helps to control the timing of meals for clients, it also frees up valuable time for me and my chefs, while also creating a much calmer environment. I think the days of a chef yelling tickets out in the kitchen are thankfully long gone.”

“The ConnectSmart® Kitchen technology provides more ‘speed of service’ data than any other kitchen display solution I’ve seen on the market. We are able to configure dish timings and dish routings on a course-by-course and dish-by-dish basis, per restaurant, which is extremely important when you have a business like ours,” states La Gattuta. 

Leon Davoyan, chief technology officer of Dave’s Hot Kitchen, said: “We chose QSR Automations because we wanted technology in the kitchen which is dynamic. We need to be able to plan for the future, so it is important to us to have a system which is feature rich. Due to how flexible the technology is, it allows us to have integrations layered with our other systems, while also being able to customise everything to fit our exact needs and operation, which is a really big win for us.”

“Restaurant technology plays a huge role in growth. If you have the right tech-stack in place, it helps you to grow exponentially faster. We look for technology which is not only good for now, but also good for 1,000 stores and beyond. So, when we shop for technology, we’re looking for the end goal and not for what’s right for right now.”

“Currently, we’re testing dynamic quote times at three of our locations so that we can match the order ready time, exactly to when the guest arrives. This way, we’re setting their expectations. For example, during a busy Friday night, we could very easily have a 45 minute ticket time, not because we’re running slowly, but because we make the food from fresh when the order comes in.” 

Training and indeed the adoption of new technology among team members, can be a blessing or a curse for operators. So, what are the key benefits of ConnectSmart® Kitchen when it comes to the training of kitchen teams? “It has been so easy because it is more efficient and consistent to use against previous systems. It literally takes a minute. It probably takes 30-seconds to one minute to learn the day-to-day functions and 30 minutes to learn the advanced functions of the technology, such as prioritising orders and re-calling. It is a very quick and intuitive system for the teams to learn how to use, concludes Davoyan.” 

The 2024 Autumn Budget left the entire industry drowning in what feels like 99 problems. However, introducing a robust strategy based on technology, could be a hugely cost efficient and labour saving solution, as we wait with bated breath until Autumn 2025, to see if the #TaxedOut campaign has indeed been able to reverse our problems.