Fipe – Confcommercio’s end-of-year accounts: catering, 38 billion losses in 2020. We need to reopen
[Press release]
As emerged from the data processed by the Research Office of fipe - Confcommercio, 2020, the annus horribilis of Italian catering, ended in the worst possible way: 37,7 billion euros in losses, approximately 40% of the entire annual turnover of the sector gone up in smoke. For this reason, Fipe – Confcommercio wrote to the Minister of Economic Development, Stefano Patuanelli, requesting an urgent meeting to jointly develop a comprehensive plan of interventions for businesses and workers in Public Establishments, also with the aim of planning a safe reopening of the premises.
The starting point of the discussion will be the end-of-year accounts, which have highlighted how the hardest blow to the sector came from the closures in November and December. Historically, during the December holidays, a significant portion of the venues generate up to 20% of the annual turnover: in the fourth quarter of 2020, however, the losses recorded exceeded 14 billion euros, with a minus 57,1% of revenues, even worse than what happened in the second quarter, that of the first lockdown. This end of year has effectively nullified the summer efforts that had led to a containment of losses in some tourist areas of the country. The large cities, where the absence of international tourism weighed most, did not even benefit from the summer truce, recording overall losses of over 80%.
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"The Italian restaurant industry - says Lino Enrico Stoppani, president of Fipe-Confcommercio - has no peace: every time the expiration of restrictive measures approaches, new ones are announced and we start from scratch. Thus, even the first measure of 2021 ordered the closure of bars and restaurants on weekends, leaving entrepreneurs in uncertainty from January 11 onwards, with the resulting damage and distortions. We ask the Government and the Technical Scientific Committee to give different perspectives - more certain, but also more motivating - to a sector that has paid a very high price, but above all that has already demonstrated that it can work in total safety".
Da Confcommercio Salerno, claiming the sense of responsibility of a sector that, from the first moment, has adapted to the continuous prescriptions, echoes the president, Giuseppe Gagliano: "The provincial situation was already highlighted a few weeks ago, regarding the collapse of hotel turnover even in the last months of the year. In the panorama of public establishments in Salerno, whose dynamics are closely linked to tourism, there are similar trends. In addition to the limitations provided for by the regulations in force, the situation is aggravated by the absence of Luci d'artista, an event that allowed companies to put a lot of hay in the barn. It is unthinkable to stem the damage, being able to work with take-away and home delivery or with openings, where permitted, until 18 pm, excluding dinner which is the time of greatest consumption. We emerge from the pandemic with everyone's contribution, without sacrificing some categories that are considered to be spreaders. It should never be forgotten that, often, behind a bar or a restaurant there are the sacrifices of a lifetime of the entrepreneur, and there are workers and suppliers who suffer from the blocking of activities".
Article published on 6 January 2021 - 17:28
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