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Mangrove: hospitality can’t take another ‘punch to the gut’
By Lauren BowesAhead of the autumn statement later this month (30 October), the managing director of Mangrove Global, Nick Gillett, has urged the new Labour government to avoid huge changes for the hospitality and spirit industries.

He said: “The hospitality and spirits industries have taken many blows over the past few years – including duty hikes and ever-increasing costs of doing business, serving a public who are strapped for cash due to sky-high cost of living.
“I could choose to be completely unrealistic and set out a few outlandish hopes for the autumn statement – but I’m a pragmatist and would much rather keep both feet firmly on the ground. I understand the government has a challenging task in hand, so I think the best that the spirits and hospitality industries can hope for is to be left well alone, and to retain the status quo.”
In the previous budget, created by the Conservative government, alcohol duty was frozen until February 2025, following the biggest alcohol tax hike in nearly 50 years in August 2023.
Earlier this month, a group of 280 distillers represented by UK Spirits Alliance, wrote to the UK chancellor asking for a reversal of the hike.
Gillett added: “Aside from the cost of booze itself, almost everything is more expensive. While in spirits we welcome the scrapping of duty stamps and potential reforms to warehousing, costs continue to rise, including those associated with energy and employment – and this is acutely affecting hospitality. One of the biggest insults to injury for the industry would be an end to the current business rates relief, in March 2025.
“The UK’s hospitality industry is a key employer and has shown on multiple occasions that it can drive the economy. But with 50 pubs a month closing in the first half of this year, and one in 10 still at risk of imminent closure, I sincerely doubt venues can handle another punch to the gut.”
Yesterday the Night Time Industries Association revealed that seven in 10 UK on-trade businesses are ‘barely breaking even or operating at a loss’, and urged an extension to business rates relief.
Gillett also warned of any tax burdens on the public, with changes likely to reduce spending power for both the on- and off-trade, thus greatly affecting his business at Mangrove.
He concluded: “We rely on the general public having disposable income – without it, we simply can’t succeed. And while the government has a difficult job to do, ‘filling the black hole’, I hope there is consideration being paid to the numerous costs being put upon businesses versus the spending power of the British public.
“We already find ourselves operating in a landscape where many small and medium enterprises simply can’t survive – which creates monopolies for bigger businesses that have the funds to weather the storm.
“I work with independent producers and venues and can testify that these entrepreneurs are the innovators and creators; the ones doing things better, doing things for good, and keeping the industry interesting.
“It would be a real shame if the autumn statement doesn’t recognise that businesses still need support – and without successful businesses, recovery is going to be an impossible task.”
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