It’s no use burying our heads in the sand: a new generation and the scars of the pandemic have changed going-out habits forever. Greater Manchester is thriving because bars and clubs have responded to this, writes Sacha Lord
Make no bones about it, the past year has been atrocious for hospitality. With more than 6,000 venues closing for good in the 12 months to December, it is now the third-highest sector in the UK for administrations and this hasn’t been a one off. In the past three years alone, more than 23,000 venues have closed amid the heavy toll of the pandemic, cost of living crisis and high interest rates.
This ongoing economic situation will undoubtedly make things incredibly hard again this year, and I, along with others in the industry, have called again and again for better support. We will continue to press hard for the much-needed reduction in VAT to bring us in line with other European countries, and we will also continue to champion those who work within the industry on wages, fair tipping and safety.
But we cannot solely pin our survival on the economic environment, and we would be foolish to do so. As the UK’s fifth biggest sector, we have to be aware of changing cultural and societal trends. We cannot continue to offer the same traditional products and services as we always have done in the hope that every new generation will simply accept these.
As a city-region, perhaps the biggest shift we’ve witnessed in Greater Manchester is the change in the typical working week. The Monday-to-Friday office week has gone, and while there have been attempts by many large corporations across the UK to resuscitate it, these look to have been in vain.
Tuesday, Wednesdays, Thursdays are now the peak times for after-work drinks and operators not accounting for this will undoubtedly struggle, if they aren’t already.
We know that trying to tempt office workers back into cities is not an immediate solution to increasing footfall and we have to think differently. We must now look at Fridays as the new start of the weekend and cater to those audiences.
We’re not alone and like other cities, London has also seen a dramatic decline in professionals coming into the city on Fridays. Only last weekend we saw the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announce his intention to introduce off-peak transport fares on Fridays to reinvigorate the hospitality sector.
Proposals such as these will go a long way to counter this decreased footfall and I welcome the fact that rather than looking backwards, mayor Khan’s office has started to make these strong moves to counter and move ahead of trends.
In addition to changes in the working week, we also need to look at audience preference, especially from the young ‘Covid generation’. This current group of 19-23 year olds were unable to have their first pint in a pub, go to a nightclub on their 18th birthday, socialise with colleagues at their first job, or – for a long time – experience the physical thrill as a bassline reverberated through a dancefloor.
For this age group, their late teens were spent online, on social platforms, and the notion of heading to the pub to catch up with friends became defunct. Whether we older traditionalists understand this preference or not, for this cohort ‘meeting for a drink’ will always be more hassle, more time-consuming and more expensive than sending a voice note, posting a Be Real or uploading a Tiktok.
While the most fearful will look upon these societal changes as plausible existential crises for the sector, I actually don’t believe that to be the case. We do, however, need to ensure the experience of socialising in person – over a drink, food or a game of darts – is worthwhile and offers something above and beyond what can be experienced at home or online.
As venue owners, we have to become more aware and adapt our industry to suit these societal changes, and I do believe the most successful operators – and the ones who will survive in the long term – are the ones watching the trends, and adapting to them swiftly and fluidly.
Take the resurgence in the non-alcoholic market for example. We are seeing stark contrasts between the operators who have expanded drinks menus to cater for new trends and new audiences, versus traditional venues who have been slower to adapt. In Greater Manchester, Love.From – an inclusive, alcohol-free bar, in the centre of the city – is performing incredibly well. In addition and in line with general trends overall, from my own personal experience through my work for The Warehouse Project, we are seeing first hand how younger audiences want one-off, exclusive experiences, in an environment where recent figures showed one nightclub in the UK was closing every two days.
Our work forecasting and innovating to meet changing habits is why Greater Manchester is not only surviving but thriving. The region has always aimed to be fair, inclusive and modern, and I do believe we are paving the way in terms of nightlife and the wider hospitality industry.
Only next week, the city will be welcoming leaders from across the world, from Japan to New York to the global Night Time Industries Summit, all of whom will be looking to us in the UK to share our expertise, knowledge and trends.
Despite the wider economic context and realignment in British politics, our determination to answer the needs of those who live here and the millions who visit, is why this city-region is outperforming others across the UK and why we will continue to blaze a trail for other regional cities – home and abroad – to emulate.
Sacha Lord is night time economy adviser for Greater Manchester