Wholesalers supplying the hospitality sector have warned of a Christmas nightmare after the RMT union announced a fresh round of rail strikes this week.
One major foodservice wholesaler told The Grocer it expected to see a 10% decline in sales on strike days, as consumers are forced to stay closer to home.
On Monday, RMT announced it would be taking industrial action from 6pm on 24 December until 6am on 27 December after rejecting an offer from the Rail Delivery Group of an 8% pay rise over two years.
This comes in addition to planned walkouts on 13-14 and 16-17 December, and 3-4 and 6-7 January.
Reynolds Catering Supplies MD Tony Reynolds said the failure of the union to reach an agreement on Monday meant the damage to the sector was already done.
“People will now have taken the decision not to travel to big cities such as Manchester or London,” said Reynolds.
“The last two Christmases have been washouts and now we’re facing further disruption, so this comes as a real kick in the teeth.”
Another major foodservice provider told The Grocer: “The strikes are likely to have a big impact on our business.
“This is only adding to our concerns about January and February, where we’re expecting to see a further drop in sales.”
It comes as the latest Wholesale Market Report from Lumina Intelligence revealed 58% of business leaders in the foodservice sector expected trading conditions to deteriorate in the period to July 2023.
UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls said: “These further rail strikes will be hugely damaging for hospitality businesses, their workers and their customers as it seems almost guaranteed we will be facing a heavily disrupted Christmas for the third year in a row.
“Our estimate of the cost of these strikes already stood at £1.5bn in lost sales and it’s incredibly frustrating that a solution has yet to be reached to avoid this disruption during the golden month of trade for our sector.”
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