‘Rail strikes becoming a really significant issue' for pubs, says boss

The hospitality sector across the UK has lost sales of more than £2.5 billion since industrial action began last summer.

Angus McMeeking, managing director, of Kingswinford-based Black Country Ales said the strikes, which were resuming today, had "without a shadow of a doubt" resulted in substantial lost sales.

He said that in particular, town and city centre pubs had lost custom due to the strikes, particularly those close to railway stations.

The chain's 47 pubs include several in Birmingham city centre as well as in Leicester, Rugby and Worcester. It also has pubs at Stafford and in Shropshire at Albrighton, Newport, Shifnal and Shrewsbury.

"it is becoming a significant issue for us," said Mr McMeeking.

"In Christmas week around Birmingham it decimated trade in city centre pubs because so many people were cancelling get-togethers because they needed to have public transport rather than cars to get there.

"Ideally we would like to see the trains running back normally as soon as possible," he added.

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said that a hoped for pre-Christmas bounce back had never materialised and new strike dates announced this week had added an extra £1bn to the costs of the action to the hospitality sector. The travel disruption is continuing to deter people from booking restaurants and tickets for events in advance.

Mick Lynch, secretary general of the RMT union, has warned the strikes were set to continue until the summer unless agreement on pay and working patterns is reached,

Clive Wratten, chief executive of the Business Travel Association, has said that people travelling for work had been hammered by strikes, inconsistent timetables and cancelled trains in the run-up to Christmas.

The Black Country Chamber of Commerce said it was not willing to comment on the impact on its members at this stage.

Shropshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive Richard Sheehan said: “It is a challenging time for members of the chamber. The delivery of raw materials is affected and movement of staff is a serious issue.

“Staff cannot get into work and face-to-face meetings are being cancelled because rail travel is not available.

“Businesses are having to adapt, again, to virtual meetings but they are not the same as meetings in person.”

Sally Themans, of Love Bridgnorth, said that over the Christmas period there had been positive feedback from traders, with strikes benefitting some businesses locally.

“Train strikes meant people didn’t go further afield and headed back to the High Street which is great news locally,” she said.