News analysis
Murder on the dance floor? Nightclubs face a crisis with young people increasingly choosing to stay in rather than go out, coupled with steeply climbing costs and the cost of living crisis. Emma Lake asks if clubs will make it til dawn
Nightclubs whose dance floors once shook with midweek stu- dents are having their strobe lights switched off and their speakers silenced as the cost of living crisis bites. Between March 2020 and December 2023, 31% of UK nightclubs – some 396 venues – closed their doors for good, analysis by the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) has shown. “That’s a huge contraction,”
said NTIA chief executive Michael Kill. “It’s hugely worry- ing and I don’t think things are getting any better.” Kill warned the rate at which late-night operators are shut- ting their doors increased in the first quarter of 2024 and said government support was
10 | The Caterer | 8 March 2024
“If nothing comes to help, we will see closures
fallen by a staggering 43.6% between 2003 and 2023. Many of the venues that have
off the scale” Sacha Lord
urgently needed. There are 16,000 fewer licensed premises across the UK than there were in March 2020, according to Hospitality Market Monitor from CGA by NIQ. The number of drink-led pubs, bars and nightclubs has
closed were independent, but high-profile brands are also feel- ing the pinch. In January Rekom UK, the UK’s largest nightclub operator with 46 sites, called in administrators, with chairman Peter Marks blaming a rise in business rates and wage costs, as well as the cost of living cri- sis hitting the spending power of its young audience. Rekom has since closed 17 nightclubs, including sites under its Pryzm and Atik brands, with a loss of 471 jobs. Rob Pitcher, chief executive
of Revolution Bars Group, said its trading showed the stark reduction in young people’s discretionary spending power.
Revolution, the bar chain
aimed at 18- to 25-year-olds, has seen a greater dent in sales than its sister Revolución de Cuba and Peach Pubs brands, which are aimed at older con- sumers. Pitcher said that Peach Pubs, whose typical custom- ers are aged 45 and over, had in contrast begun to see an increase in the frequency of customer visits. He added: “Post-pandemic
that same group of 18- to 25-year-olds flooded back into venues very quickly in vast numbers, so we know they still very much enjoy a night out. But for the last 18 months they have been the hardest hit by the cost of living crisis. “That Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night out has disap-
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ANTHONY DELANOIX/UNSPLASH
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