'Catastrophic' rail strikes could wipe out 'a month's profit'

Hospitality operators fear losing a “month’s profit” from three days of disrupted trade following National Rail and Transport for London (TfL) strikes, which started this morning (Thursday).

Restaurants and bars have announced closures and adjusted trading hours as a result of National Rail strikes taking place today and Saturday, as well as London-wide strikes on tube, rail and bus services scheduled for tomorrow (Friday).

Chris Yates, managing director of Angela Hartnett's restaurants, told The Caterer Café Murano St James would be closed on Friday because this particular series of strikes would have “even more of an impact” than those earlier in the year.

Murano St James would normally have 100 covers booked for lunch and at least 100 reservations for dinner, but this Friday’s bookings were for 15 lunch covers and eight people for dinner.

The restaurant had already been impacted by quieter Fridays following the move to hybrid-working. That combined with virtually no Tube or overground services and only limited bus routes operating led the team to close the venue.

Café Murano sites in Covent Garden and Bermondsey will remain open and Yates has organised cabs to get people to and from work.

He said: “Our colleagues need to come to work to earn a living as well. It’s not just the train drivers and bus drivers.”

Commenting on the impact of strike action on hospitality, he added: “It’s awful. The impact goes beyond the specific day when the strike takes place. Trade is between 30% and 50% down on a day of strikes, which means that it’s a loss-making day and probably a loss-making week for us. It’s pretty catastrophic.”

Alexandre Santamaria, who manages operations at Nikita private members’ club in Mayfair through consulting firm, Aware Hospitality, expressed his frustration that the strikes are occurring when the industry is “already in survival mode”.

He said: “We might think a strike on these two, three days is a small impact, but it’s actually huge. You lose three trade days; you pretty much lose your month of profit. Profit is so tiny as it is. I have not experienced such a bad combination of events from staff shortage, electricity and strikes in my 20 years in London. I’ve never seen such a bad situation.”

Nick Gilkinson, director of Townsend restaurant in the Whitechapel Gallery, has adjusted his trading hours and his staffing plans to accommodate for strike action this weekend.

He said: “Our team live all over London, so we’re having to change our rotas to make sure that people that live closest are working on the days of the tube strikes. We’re lucky that we have a few people who can do that.”

Townsend will be closing on Saturday night to ensure that everyone can get home.

Gilkinson added: “I’m fully supportive of the strikes – I don’t blame the unions for this. Obviously it’s not great for business – it has been tricky. As we are getting back up on our feet post-Covid, if it’s not the strikes it’s the rise in energy prices.”

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport, has told The Times that months of strikes could be ahead.

Transport for London recommends the use of river services, the London cable car and Santander cycles for those in need of public transport during the strike period.

The strike action follows news of UK inflation hitting a 40-year-high of 10.1%.