AUDIO: The growth in the UK’s food and beverage market is unsustainable and there will be significant closures in the next 15 months, a retail expert has warned.
The supermarket sector is also set for cannibalisation, Matthew Hopkinson, director at the Local Data Company told this week’s Completely Retail conference.
“My biggest worry [over the next year] is the F&B sector. In the last five years we have seen 14,000 restaurants open. I know we are an obese nation, but how many more restaurants do we need? And when you look at the profitability of those players, it will start to become a challenge,” he said.
Hopkinson predicted that because of high consumer debt the economic bubble would burst.
“We are going to see some of the bigger players go into administration or we may start to see an impact on the independents,” he warned.
Hopkinson added that with the constantly expanding supermarket sector, there would be “a bloodbath of competition with chances of cannibalisation.”
To hear the full interview, click on the audio player below, or download from Estates Gazette’s iTunes channel.
