Business confidence remains mixed among smaller operators
In a survey of restaurant businesses with one to five sites within Restaurant’s Generation Next cohort, 60% of businesses said they expected sales this summer to be down on 2022 levels.
Confidence levels in the sector is mixed. When asked how confident they were that their business would grow in the next 12 months, 23% said they were slightly pessimistic and 14% said they were very pessimistic about the future. However, 26% of respondents said they were mildly confident and a further 9% purported to be being extremely confident in their business’ future.
When it comes to price increases, 44% of small businesses have raised their prices by 5-10% in the past six months with 20% having raised them by 11-15% during the same period. Only 9% of businesses surveyed said that they hadn’t raised them at all, with a further 16% saying that price increases had been below 5%.
Food price inflation and soaring energy prices were cited as the biggest challenges businesses faced, followed by concerns over staffing and falling consumer confidence.
In terms of investment, 20% of businesses asked said that they were currently seeking investment with private equity (42%) and bank loans (39%) the most popular channels they were exploring, followed by crowdfunding and debt financing (both 17%).
On the issue of staffing, opinions were split on whether business thought they would be able to maintain and grow their workforce. Under a third of respondents (29%) said they were slightly confident about staffing levels while 28% expressed pessimism over their ability to grow staffing numbers.
When asked to rank in importance the help Government could provide businesses, cutting VAT came out top with 52% rating is as the most important measure that could be taken, followed by reducing business rates and creating a more level playing field for energy bills.
Respondents were generally optimistic about their ability to find new sites, with 17% saying they were very confident and 30% saying they were slightly confident about finding new locations, compared with 12% of respondents being either slightly or vert pessimistic in their ability to do so (41% were unsure).
The survey results are based on the answers of 175 respondents that operate one to five sites in the restaurant, street food, catering and pub and bar sector.
