More online www.thecaterer.com Restaurants still struggling to find


skilled staff after industry ‘exodus’ Though restaurateurs say staffing crisis has ‘settled’ since Covid, vacancies remain high with a need for skilled workers across hospitality


By Sophie Witts


Restaurants are still struggling to hire staff with the right skills after an “exodus” of people from the hospitality industry during the pandemic. Marcello Distefano, manag-


ing director at the 35-strong San Carlo restaurant group, told the Northern Restaurant & Bar (NRB) show in Manches- ter that Covid had been “a big lesson” for the industry. San Carlo Group was founded


in Birmingham in 1992 and now runs 25 Italian restaurants in the UK and 10 international sites under franchise, employ- ing around 1,200 people. “[Staffing is] a lot easier than


it has been post-Covid. Things have settled down, the teams are more settled and we’ve got a smaller turnover of people, but it’s still a challenge getting the right skill levels in restaurants,” said Distefano. “There are probably very few restaurateurs who would say their service levels are as good as they were pre-Covid. Some- times we’re having to turn a blind eye more often than not.”


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“There are


probably very few restaurateurs who would say their service levels are as good as they


were pre-Covid” Marcello Distefano


and Covid had caused “a bit of an evacuation of skilled labour from the sector”. “[The] changing face of the


labour market and the hospi- tality industry…it’s completely different from what it used to be and it’s scary in some regards,” Kirby told NRB. “There’s a lot of young peo-


There were 112,000 staff vacancies across the hospital- ity industry at the end of 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics. While this marked a 35,000 drop on the previous year, it was still higher than the vacancy rate before the pandemic, which was 89,000. Miles Kirby, co-founder and director at the Caravan restau- rant group, which runs eight sites in London employing around 500 people, said Brexit


ple that don’t necessarily have a hospitality background that are entering the sector. It’s exciting as much as it’s scary. “As a senior leader in the business, it’s very much seen as a responsibility for us to make sure these people are trained properly for the sustainability of the industry.” Despite the challenges, Dis-


tefano said he remained posi- tive and San Carlo was growing and developing new concepts to keep the team engaged. “Everybody looks at the res-


taurant industry as one, but it’s actually become very polar- ised,” he said. “I think busi- ness models are very different within the industry. All that’s happened is certain business models don’t work anymore and that happens in lots of


industries. Times change, industries change. You’ve got to come at things a different way. “Yes, there’s negativity out


there and I get it – it is harder for others than it is for some. There are still lots of restaurant groups that have been performing phe- nomenally well post-Covid. He added: “Hospitality now is


very, very creative, compared to many years ago. In the old days the model was make something and replicate it as many times as possible. We don’t believe in that. We could have taken San Carlo to however many sites, but we’ve started doing differ- ent concepts. “We’ve all had to change.


Covid was a big lesson for us, there was a mass exodus [of staff]. We all accepted for many years that if you want to work in hospitality, it’s tough and you’ve got to sacrifice your life because you love it… but we did it and were successful through it. “But to expect the new gen-


eration to be like that is just not going to happen. We’re in a very different world.”


sophie.witts@thecaterer.com 22 March 2024 | The Caterer | 7


ROBERT KNESCHKE/SHUTTERSTOCK


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