The hospitality market looks healthier

Failures per £1bn of sales - using data from the ONS - appear to be down 24% since pre-covid. But strip out inflation and that improvement shrinks dramatically.

Yes, fewer businesses are dying. But fewer are being born too. Churn is slowing. The market is maturing. The real question is whether upcoming cost pressures reverse that trend.

In this week’s issue, I also revisit the idea of state-backed public restaurants.

The DISHED pilot, led by Nourish Scotland with partners including the University of Nottingham and the University of Sussex, is testing subsidised dining in Nottingham and Dundee.  History gives reason for scepticism. Britain has tried this before - from the 1917 National Kitchens to the wartime British Restaurants. Both expanded in crisis. Both disappeared when conditions eased.

Can this version succeed where others faded?  My briefing explores the numbers - and the policy experiment - in more depth.

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