Negative news stories don’t help Glasgow restaurants says Gamba boss

 Gamba boss Derek Marshall has steered the ship of Glasgow’s longest-established seafood restaurant for 26 years but has known nothing like the negativity in the press lately about Glasgow city centre.

Says Derek: “Take the parking charges debacle that threatened to be in force up to 10 pm. It may have come to nothing, but the damage was already done, at least for a while. People were put off from venturing into the city centre.

“It’s clear that my guests or staff can no longer rely on public transport to get them home either. It’s hardly the most reliable, so it’s a good job there are plenty of hotels in the city centre supporting restaurants and bars.”

Hospitality plays a huge part in the Scottish economy. It delivers £6 billion each year, a further £3 billion through suppliers, and was the third largest employer in pre-pandemic Scotland. Roughly 300,000 people worked in the sector. And the food and drink sector as a whole is Scotland's biggest employer, worth £15 billion. It's made up of more than 17,000 businesses, employing around 129,000 people.

Established restaurants are flourishing

Derek thinks how rapidly new restaurants seem to come and go so quickly might be another reason why more established businesses are flourishing.

“I ask myself nearly every week now: why are so many restaurants closing as opening? It seems as if these short-lived businesses popping up so frequently isn’t sustainable. It only highlights what longer-established restaurants have to offer.

“Keeping a restaurant open for years is no mean feat, and while I love doing what I do as I’m sure many others do too, it’s not something that can be built up overnight.”

 Restaurant recruitment issues still linger

Recruitment challenges continue to affect Scottish hospitality. Recent figures show that, compared to January 2024 vacancies in Scotland increased by 60% in April 2024.

Caterer.com research said that chefs, front-of-house staff and restaurant management are the three most difficult roles to fill in Scotland.

Hospitality businesses in the UK recruit more than three-quarters of their staff from within the UK, but Scottish businesses including Gamba are finding unique challenges in the numbers of people available to work.

 “Recruiting staff remains tricky and perhaps something like a dedicated Scottish visa that allowed struggling restaurants to recruit staff might be an idea,” says Derek.

Changes in the dining habits of restaurant guests

Then there’s the changing habits of guests and how they dine in restaurants.

 “Guests tell Gregor that they don’t always feel welcome to sit for a while in other restaurants after they’ve finished their food. Our guests are of course welcome to do this, but in the last few years, we’ve noticed that people don’t want to sit for long anymore.  Time was guests would go on to The Blythswood or Blue Dog but not so much nowadays.”

The future of Glasgow restaurants

How does Derek think things will pan out in the next five years or so?

“I think that longer established restaurants will still be around as they tend to invest more in their guests and so their guests invest in them. Unfortunately for our nighttime economy, nightclubs seem to be disappearing fast, so we might start seeing more late-night restaurants.”

 Sources:

UKHospitality

ScotGov

By Jason Caddy