Tax and wage hikes to cost restauranteur ‘£270,000 per year’

A restaurant owner has said he will have to find an extra £270,000 this year to cover forthcoming tax rises and increased staffing costs.

Eamon McCusker employs 116 staff across three sites in Belfast – two Chubby Cherub restaurants and AMPM in Upper Arthur Street.

Like most employers in Northern Ireland, he faces a rise in National Insurance bills, a hike in minimum wage levels and an increase in business rates from April.

He said the additional costs have left the hospitality industry facing “really tough decisions”.

Mr McCusker has run AMPM for the past 23 years but said the rising costs of running a restaurant have made it a tough trade in which to make money.

“There’s kind of an assumption made within our industry that because you’re busy, you’re profitable. That is actually not true,” he said.

“Viable businesses are going to have to close if they do not focus on profitability.”

The restaurateur explained it was a difficult time to consider raising the prices that they charge customers because “the affordability just isn’t there”.

He said venues risk “pricing ourselves out of the market” if they charge too much when people are still struggling with the cost of living.

He added the one thing restaurants can control is their opening hours – only operating at profitable times – but this also can have negative consequences.

“Industry colleagues are going to close Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays,” he said.

“So what you’ll be left with is a soulless city, a soulless hospitality industry, a reduction in tourism and you will have the inability to grow.”

He argued that the cost rises were “reductive policies” which stifled progress.

“They are policies that are actually going to force people like me to basically hold off on investment, not only just physically on capital spend, but also in training and creating a better product and a better service and investing in your people.”

Analysis by Clodagh Rice, BBC News NI business correspondent:

We have known these increases have been coming since last year’s Budget, but what is only becoming clearer as we edge closer to April is how employers will react.

They face difficult decisions – to cut jobs or staff hours? To put prices up? To put investment plans on hold?

While businesses are resilient and will work to find a solution, the impact of pausing or cancelling expansion plans will restrict economic growth.

The timing of the increases will also be felt sharply by sectors still facing soaring food and energy costs, higher interest rates, as well as those still recovering from the pandemic.

For some, it could be the final straw which makes them decide to close altogether.