Doom, gloom...and why hospitality needs to get match fit

Let’s not sugar-coat it: hospitality in the UK feels like it’s dragging itself through wet cement. Every week brings a new reason to mutter, 'You couldn’t make it up' And yes, the government seems determined to make running a business feel like an extreme sport. 

This isn’t a political rant - I’ve survived enough political nonsense in my time to know I’ve got zero appetite for it. What I do know is this: 

Everything is temporary. Hard times don’t last forever. 

And when things get tough, people don’t totally stop spending - they just get choosy. They go where the welcome’s warm, the service is sharp, and the experience feels worth it. 
Which is why right now… we need to get our heads straight, be ready for some punches and wear resilience like we invented it.  

Stop Whingeing -Start Doing 
We need to talk about the elephant in the room. 
Or rather, the herd of elephants on social media. The constant whingeing. Every platform is full of people shouting about how it “used to be,” why the industry’s “finished,” and whose fault it is today. Clusters of like-minded whingers revving each other up like seagulls fighting over a stale Gre**s pasty. 

Here’s the issue: 
It drains us. 
Buckets of energy wasted on moaning instead of moving forward. We all know being solution minded is the key.  Vent? Fine. 
Live there? Absolutely not. Hospitality needs solution-minded people, not an online doom orchestra.  

Now Is Exactly When Hospitality Matters Most 

I’ve seen it a hundred times: trade gets quiet, and standards slip. Staff start drifting. Someone polishes the same spoon for half an hour, or my personal favourite thing to hate, hiding behind a laptop. Everyone’s “busy” doing everything except looking after the one guest who’s actually in the building. But it’s in these moments - the slow days, the weird months, the uncomfortable uncertainty - that hospitality has to be at its strongest. Your menu might be stripped back. 
Your staffing might be tight. 
Your costs might be through the roof. But if your hospitality is warm, genuine and focused… guests won’t notice the rest.  Control the Things You Can Control There’s plenty going on in the world right now that you cannot fix. 

So stop pouring energy into it. Put that energy into the things you can control:
 • The greeting 
• The warmth 
• The quality of the food 
• The attention to detail 
• The jokes, the smiles, the humanity 
• The spotless room
• The team morale 
• The standards on a rainy Tuesday afternoon 

That’s where the magic is. Always has been.  

Look After Your Suppliers - They’re in the Fight Too 

And while we’re talking about things that matter… 
your suppliers are getting battered by all this as well. 

If there was ever a time to stick close to the people who’ve kept your kitchens running, it’s now. 

Use the best suppliers you can. 
• Stay loyal. 
• Communicate properly. 
• Treat them like genuine partners - because that’s what they are. 

Don’t be the operator who jumps ship to save 10p on a cauliflower. 
That mentality will come back and bite you. 

Because here’s what happens:
• The great suppliers disappear.
• The mediocre ones take over. 
 Your product quality slides. 
• Your guests notice. 
• And suddenly those “savings” cost you far more than you gained. 

The best suppliers - the ones who care, who turn up, who know their craft - are worth their weight in gold. 
And in tough times, they remember who stood by them. 
Good operators and good suppliers survive together. The rest get washed away. 

Get Agile. Get Creative. Get over the Fads

Ingredients are chaotic. Prices make no sense. Trends push certain products into the stratosphere. 

So adapt. 

Use the ingredients that are good value right now. 
Grab the glut and cook the hell out of it. 
If something’s fallen out of fashion, brilliant - now it’s affordable again. 
Grill it, braise it, confit it, blitz it, stick it on toast. Just get using it.  

Some of the greatest dishes in history were created because chefs had three ingredients, a deadline, and a hungry crowd.   

Quality Wins - Especially in Chaos

Here’s the comforting part: When times are tough, people want quality. 
They want warmth. 
They want someone to look after them properly. 

They’re not looking for perfection - just a place where they feel like a human being, not an inconvenience. 

That’s hospitality. 
That’s what we do. 
And right now, it matters more than ever. 

So yes, it’s tough. 
Yes, it feels unfair. 
Yes, the doom merchants are loud. 
But this is the moment to rise above it. 
To stop shouting into the online void. 
To focus on what we can actually control. 
To double down on genuine, meaningful, memorable hospitality. 

Because the world might be wobbling. 
But how we treat people? 
That’s still ours to own. 

If You Want Help Strengthening Your Hospitality…  
We all need help and guidance from time to time. Do you need it now? let’s talk.

Clive Dixon Consultancy Limited
Partners with its clients to grow standards, confidence and commercial success.