Period likely to be even bleaker as forecast made before Boris Johnson’s U-turn on Covid restrictions
Pubs will serve 5m fewer Christmas dinners and 39m fewer pints over the festive period, as the tiered system of coronavirus restrictions condemned the struggling industry to its quietest festive period on record.
Britain’s 47,200 pubs would usually have one of their most lucrative weeks of the year over Christmas, but 85% are now closed or unable to trade viably because they are outside tier 1, according to the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).