The COVID-19 pandemic has wrecked confidence across hospitality, with fewer than one in five (18%) leaders now optimistic about the market’s prospects for the next 12 months, the new Business Confidence Survey from CGA and Fourth reveals.

The figure is 42 percentage points down on the pre-pandemic level of 60% in the February edition of the Survey. Extended restrictions on trading and socialising over the autumn have led more than a quarter (27%) of multi-site business leaders to predict their groups will be unviable within the first six months of 2021 if current levels of support continue. Single-site businesses are at even greater risk of failure, the Survey shows.