Survey Shows Decline In Pubs And Restaurants

A survey published today has revealed an extensive half-decade decline in pubs and restaurants, according to a major drinks organization

The Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) today published its “Survey of Licensed Premises 2009”, which, it claims, is the largest ever research exercise undertaken on the Irish on-licensed sector.

The survey found that over 1,500 pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants had closed in the past five years and that since 2004, employment in the sector had decreased, sales revenues had fallen, and labour costs have increased in pubs, restaurants, hotels, and nightclubs.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Kehoe’s of South Anne Street in Dublin city centre this morning, DIGI Chairman, Kieran Tobin, said that the survey records a period of decline in the on-trade in Ireland that had begun in the early years of the decade, and which has accelerated sharply over the last 18 months.

Mr Tobin said that the economic downturn and lifestyle changes were combining with high alcohol taxes and a major increase in cross-border trade to put the wider drinks industry under immense pressure, but particularly pubs, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs where closures and redundancies are now commonplace.

Mr said: “This major survey requires careful and considered examination by all those in our industry and by government. The reasons for the declines in sales and revenue in the on-trade are clear: lifestyle changes and a shift to the consumption of alcohol at home have had an impact on licensed premises, but cannot on their own account for the losses which the sector is suffering."

The report’s author, Anthony Foley added that the overall picture was one of a sector suffering a period of sharp decline, with a large majority, 70%, of all licensed premises surveyed reporting a decrease in net sales over the past five years.

(DW/KMcA)