Sunday has become the new Friday thanks to Britain’s burgeoning ‘work from home’ culture, it is claimed – with more people going out to dine at the weekend’s end.
Fridays have become ‘tougher’ for hospital firms amid a shift in post-Covid pandemic working patterns, the boss of a pizza chain has suggested.
Thom Elliot, co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims, said dining behaviour had changed with the onset of hybrid working – making Sundays busier but Fridays less buzzing.
Consumers are tucking into ‘treat meals’ during the week but indulging more on not only Saturdays but also Sundays, he says.
It comes after pub chiefs told of their struggles with a loss of post-work business with more people working from home – but some signs of people making a point of going in on Fridays to catch up with colleagues for end-of-the-week drinks.
Thom (left) and James Elliot (centre) are seen here with celebrity chef Mary Berry
Thom Elliot has suggested that more people working from home has led to a rise in consumers going out to eat on Sundays (stock image)
Thom Elliot, co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims, said dining behaviour had changed with the onset of hybrid working – making Sundays busier but Fridays less buzzing
Mr Elliot set up Pizza Pilgrims with his brother James and have counted former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak among their firm’s fans.
Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak both visited their Pizza Pilgrim chain during the Covid pandemic to show how restaurants were adapting to making sure customers were safe to return and eat out after lockdown restrictions had been lifted.
Pizza Pilgrims was launched in 2012 and was an instant success as it traded at Berwick Street market in the Soho district of central London.
Two years later the Elliots opened their first pop-up restaurant and have since expanded to have 25 pizzerias with nine locations in London and sites in Leeds, Brighton, Nottingham and Cambridge.
Now Thom Elliot has been speaking about the post-pandemic impact on how Britons see dining out.
He told the PA news agency: ‘I think the “treat meal” in the week still exists. We’ve definitely seen a change in the make-up of that week.’
But this has made trading tougher on a Friday, he said, with hospitality firms previously enjoying some of their strongest sales at the end of the working week.
Nevertheless, Mr Elliot said Saturdays were ‘much bigger’ than pre-Covid, while there was evidence to suggest that more people are eating out on a Sunday night.
He said: ‘I’m allocating this to the mindset of, “I don’t have to go to the office on Monday morning, so if I’m a little bit slower out of the gates, that’s probably okay”.’
Brothers Thom (left) and James Elliot, who co-founded Pizza Pilgrims in 2012, are seen here in one of their restaurants in November 2020
Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak visited a branch of Pizza Pilgrims in West India Quay, east London, in June 2020
His business recently revealed that its pre-tax profits more than doubled to £700,000 in the year to June last year, while revenues grew by more than a third to £29million.
Mr Elliot said there was a ‘goldrush toward neighbourhood areas during Covid’, with restaurants opening up in a bid to attract consumers staying close to home.
But the number of visitors has broadly returned to pre-Covid levels, the founder said, with busy city hotspots such as London’s West End ‘back and busier than ever’.
He suggested diners spent an average of about £16 to £17 per visit to its pizzerias.
The casual dining sector has seen a number of new entrants growing rapidly in recent years, with pizza chain Franco Manca founded in 2008 and growing to operate more than 70 restaurants across the UK.
Meanwhile, other struggling chains have grappled with the post-pandemic recovery, soaring food and energy costs, and consumers tightening their belts against cost-of-living pressures.
The operator of TGI Fridays in the UK fell into administration earlier this month and has been trying to secure a buyer for its 87-strong chain of restaurants.
Yet also earlier this year one pub chief reported a surge in workers ditching working from home on Fridays and instead heading to the office.
Simon Emeny, the chief of pub chain Fuller’s which has around 400 pubs, said the change in behaviour has delivered a boost for Britain’s pubs.
Boris Johnson paid a visit to Pizza Pilgrims’ Isle of Dogs branch as part of a promotion in July 2020 to show how restaurants would admit customers while enforcing social distancing
Pizza Pilgrims recently revealed that its pre-tax profits more than doubled to £700,000 in the year to June last year, while revenues grew by more than a third to £29million
He told the Telegraph: ‘What we’re seeing with urban areas, particularly London, is that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is still strong, but actually we are seeing growth on Mondays and Fridays.
‘We’ve seen a return to much more normalised consumer behaviour – there’s definitely a big return to offices and good growth in tourism.’
Since the pandemic-induced rise of working from home, pubs in urban areas that relied on sales from after-work drinks particularly suffered.
Workers that steered clear of the office on Mondays and Fridays became known as ‘TWaTs’ – in reference to only going in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
But more companies have been cracking down on working from home and have begun to order their staff back full time.
Mr Emeny added: ‘People that I speak to are thriving being back in offices again, thriving working as teams and we’re certainly seeing that in our sales on Mondays and Fridays.’
Yet the Labour government’s new Business Secretary has backed remote working, describing it as good for the economy because people are more productive when they are ‘happy at home’.
Jonathan Reynolds said in September he was happy for staff in the Department for Business and Trade he leads to work from ‘in any part of the UK’ where it is possible.
A survey in June revealed employees’ TV-watching habits while working from home
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, pictured here addressing the Labour Party conference in Liverpool last month, has suggested support for civil servants working from home
His remarks further signalled the new government’s U-turn from the previous Tory administration’s attempts to get workers back to the office.
The previous government told officials to spend at least 60 per cent of their time – the equivalent of three days in a week – at their workplace HQs.
A survey in June suggested that more than eight in 10 UK employees who work from home have admitted to watching TV on company time.
Among more than 2,000 hybrid workers who took part in the study, which looked into Britons’ WFH confessions, Gen Z workers – aged between 18 and 24 – were the most likely to switch on the television while working.