A social media and a home delivery boom has shifted younger people’s attitude to going out and risks shrinking the late night entertainment market, the boss of one of the UK’s biggest pub companies has warned.
Phil Urban, the chief executive of the pub operator Mitchells & Butlers, said that the “toughest part of the market right now is late night” as younger people abandon the traditions of previous generations, who would be more inclined to “go out late night and stay out”.
“I think social media means that you don’t have to do that to stay in touch with your friends,” he said. “People are often meeting beforehand to have something to eat, having a few drinks at home, before going out. So, those pure late-night, club operators, have certainly got a smaller market.”
He added: “We wouldn’t go back into that sort of club market, it’s not for us, because I do think it’s going to take a long while to reverse – if it does.”
In 2013, the UK had 1,700 nightclubs. By June 2024 there were fewer than half as many, just 787, according to figures from the analysts CGA by NIQ and AlixPartners.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which effectively shut down the industry for months on end, sped up the pace of decline, putting paid to more than a third of Britain’s clubs, the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) has said.
Mitchells owns restaurants, pubs and bar chains including Toby Carvery, Harvester, All Bar One, Nicholson’s, and Miller & Carter.
Urban added that the group’s brands were “doing well”, but that its Irish pub and bar chain O’Neill’s was “probably having the toughest time” due to its exposure to the night-time industry.
While hospitality companies will be hoping for a boost in spending over the bank holiday weekend, family-focused events such as Mother’s Day and Easter have been the driving force behind a jump in visitors for many chains.
Earlier this month, Marston’s, which runs about 1,300 pubs in the UK, said such occasions were bringing in more customers, while it has recently invested in a new sports pub concept to capitalise on the growing market.
Even so, the overall pub sector faces challenging conditions itself due to cost of living pressures for its customers, while recent rises in employer national insurance contributions and the national minimum wage has also left companies considering whether or not to raise prices.
