s the worst of the crisis that has threatened the existence of so much of the restaurant sector since the start of the pandemic finally over?
New figures on profitability today suggest that may be the case.
Analysis from accountant Hacker Young shows the UK’s top 100 restaurant groups made a combined profit of £241.8 million in the six months to March, a 12-fold increase on the £19.9 million surplus it collectively scraped together in the previous half year — and years of draining losses before that. It is still far from boom times.
Those profits represent a relatively thin 3% margin — but far healthier than the barely sustainable 0.5% before.
The restaurant game has always been a precarious business, vulnerable to fickle shifts in public tastes, intense competition, volatile costs and scarce skilled labour. But it has been particularly bad over recent years with energy, food and staff bills rocketing and years of lockdowns and other trading restrictions caused by Covid to navigate.
The report identifies how restaurateurs have responded to the biggest downturn in trade in living memory through tough measures such as reduced working hours, and cost-cutting such as sourcing cheaper ingredients.
Many marginal sites have been closed too. The Hacker Young report focuses on the bigger chains that had the internal financial and staff resources to respond to the restaurant recession.
For the smaller independent players that help to make London such a rewarding and interesting place to live it is still a relentlessly tough grind.
The test will come in the autumn, the peak season for new openings in the run-up to Christmas.
The number of launches has been well down in recent years.
A pick-up in the pipeline would be the most reassuring indicator that the restaurant sector is no longer living off scraps and can look forward to a healthier diet over the year to come.