All Bar One and Toby Carvery owner cuts 1,300 jobs as Covid-19 pushes it to annual loss
Pub chain Mitchells & Butlers has cut 1,300 jobs this year having made a £123m loss in the last year.
The group, which owns cocktail bar All Bar One and Toby Carvery, said it could no longer support the employees due to store closures and reduced levels of activity because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this the business announced it would close 20 sites due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The group’s revenue for the last year stood at £1,475m, down by 34% on the previous year’s £2,237m.
Chief executive Phil Urban said: “Throughout a very uncertain and challenging year our businesses and teams have adapted quickly, creating a safe environment for guests and putting us in a strong position to benefit when consumers are able to eat out again. We saw direct evidence of this from a strong trading period in July and August before further restrictions came into force.
“With our great estate, balanced portfolio of brands and proven management team, we remain optimistic that we will be able to regain the momentum previously built and continue to achieve sustained market outperformance, when the current operating restrictions are eased.”
In September, Mitchells & Butlers reported that like-for-like sales for July were down 32.4 per cent compared to the previously year, due to reduced capacity and consumers’ caution to visit pubs and restaurants.
It secured like-for-like sales growth of 1.4 per cent in August due to the government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, but posted a sales decline of 6.4 per cent in the first three weeks of September as fears over a second wave of infections began to mount.