Lawson, who became CEO of the business in January 2019, took aim at successive Governments for failing UK businesses with their “lack of understanding”.
He said: “The biggest single challenge is consumer confidence. The latest data from Barclaycard showed some of the most negative consumer sentiment data since 2022 and that is a real problem for us because anybody in the consumer-facing sector is looking for customers to come out and spend their disposable income with you.”
He added it didn’t matter that Butcombe – which operates managed and tenanted pubs, accommodation across the south of England and the Channel Islands, and also brews beer – is a “premium-focused business” because although a lot of its customers still have money in their pockets, the way the Government has handled the economy since last year’s Autumn Budget, has continued to erode consumer confidence.
Living off scraps and crumbs
With this year’s Autumn Budget taking place on Wednesday (26 November), Lawson stated the second biggest issue for Butcombe is the lack of ability to plan with certainty and said many businesses have financial years closely aligned to the calendar year so time is being taken up focusing on delivering Christmas and preparing next year’s plans.
He said: “We saw how many challenges came after the Budget last October and we’re living off scraps and crumbs from the poorly handled briefing from Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer. So stability and continuity are key for us as a business and we want to be able to plan forward.”
He admitted it’s not just the Labour Government that has let hospitality down but consecutive Governments have disappointed all UK businesses.
“There is an absolute lack of understanding within Governments of what business needs while there is no lack of energy from businesses into trying to inform and educate Governments on what they need,” Lawson stated.
Gov needs to move quickly
“This sector was responsible for providing GDP growth immediately after the pandemic and that’s a great indication of the potential the hospitality sector has in providing growth for this country and that’s what we desperately need.”
He added one of the key pledges the Labour Government made before it was elected was it was going to provide stability for businesses – and that would allow them to “crack on with planning” but instead they have provided “uncertainty and instability” since its election win.
Lawson is an optimist and concluded: “It wouldn’t take much to transform the attitude and mood within this sector for us to show the Government what they’ve been missing out on – but they do need to move pretty quickly – you cannot keep driving more cost into a business and providing no assistance in terms of delivering growth. It just doesn’t work.
“We’re delivering a great year. We’ve grown substantially over the past five or six years. We’ve got exciting plans for next year. We’ve got investments that will kick straight in after Christmas, which is exciting. We’re looking at new sites again, which is great. It would be lovely to get some recognition from the Government and some support to give us more confidence.”
