BBPA highlights ongoing damage lockdown is causing to pubs and communities they serve, reiterates Government must ensure pubs fully reopen on June 21st
The British Beer & Pub Association, the leading trade association representing brewers and pubs, has today revealed that pubs will miss out on 12 million in sales of pints and 3.6 million in sales of meals due to the ongoing restrictions covering this Mother’s Day.
Pubs across the UK will remain closed and unable to serve takeaway beer on Mothering Sunday – which falls on Sunday 14th March this year – because they remain in lockdown until April at the earliest, where they should hopefully reopen outdoors only.
Pubs were also forced to shut for Mother’s Day in 2020, which fell on 22nd March and shortly after the Prime Minister announced the first UK lockdown on March 16th.
It means for the second year in a row, families have not been able to celebrate the occasion in their local with a pub meal.
According to the BBPA, this Mother’s Day alone will result in the trade losing out on £83 million worth of sales which would have been crucial to the sectors recovery. More importantly though, it said, was the fact that thousands of communities across the UK were unable to celebrate Mother’s Day with loved ones in their local for the second year in a row.
The BBPA said it made it all the more important that pubs, following limited outside opening in April and indoors in May, can trade fully from June 21st as stated in the Government’s roadmap for reopening.
The news comes as new research by the think tank Localis revealed that pubs have a vital role to play in the COVID-19 recovery and Government’s own levelling up agenda, but that to do so they must reopen fully by June 21st (1).
Despite being unable to open and serve their communities at the pub, operators have done all they can to ‘Save Mother’s Day’ and provide the pub experience at home this Sunday.
Oakman Inns, which has a number of venues across the Home Counties and Midlands, has launched Oakman At Home – a range of ‘makeaway’ meal boxes for Mother’s Day (2).
Fuller’s, which has a number of pubs across London and the South, has created a Mother’s Day Sunday Roast Box Feast, as part of the ‘Fuller’s At Home’ range. The Box Feast includes all the ingredients and food necessary to prepare a quality roast dinner – the next best thing to having one at the pub (3).
The BBPA also said pubs across the UK were offering takeaway meals and cook-at-home kits to enable Brits to get the Sunday Pub roast experience at home for Mother’s Day. It encouraged people to ask their local if they were offering such a service.
Emma McClarkin, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, said:
“A pub Sunday Roast on Mother’s Day is one of life’s simple pleasures, yet for the second year in a row, families will not be able to celebrate the occasion at their local.
“The pub is the place where we connect and spend quality time with one another, so it is a great shame they are not open for Mother’s Day again.
“From a trade perspective, it does mean our pubs will miss out on some much-needed support too. On a typical Mothering Sunday they would expect to sell some 12 million pints and 3.6 million meals. That’s £83 million in trade which they really could do with right now.
“As ever, our locals are still doing all they can to serve their communities despite the lockdown, safely. This has seen pubs innovate and create ‘makeaways’, cooking kits and more traditional takeaways. Although it isn’t quite the same as being in the pub, it is the next best thing.
“It is becoming all the more clear that the Government must ensure all our pubs are open and able to trade fully from June 21st as indicated in the roadmap.”
