Reduced hours or intermittent openings. Squeezed by the rise in bills and in general by the increase in prices and therefore costs, many businesses and public establishments are struggling to go ahead and try to survive by implementing savings plans. It happens pretty much everywhere, for shops, groceries, bars, restaurants and hotels. Just as widespread is the risk of heavier effects of the expensive bill in autumn: thousands of businesses risk closing, with a new blow, from the shopping streets to the suburbs, after Covid.
The surge in energy costs
It is the alarm that comes from different cities, with a request for help to avoid further stops. The incidence of energy costs on the turnover of companies in the tertiary sector is always higher: on average by + 121%, according to the survey by Confcommercio Milan, Lodi, Monza and Brianza, carried out on 703 companies. The growth goes from + 181% in food retail to + 161% for hotels-accommodation and + 123% for catering, to + 119% and + 116% for non-food shops and services, in one year (2022-2021 ).
Hotels and restaurants among the sectors that suffer the most
The consequences? 15% see the risk of closure and 10% of temporary suspension of the activity. The majority (66%) indicate a solution to reduce the expensive energy in the lower use of lighting and air conditioning / heating. And, at the same time, it calls for broader and more incisive measures to reduce the tax burden on bills. Hotels and restaurants are among the sectors that suffer the most.
The energy price increases put 8-10 thousand companies at risk
Same difficulties in Rome. «We must avoid further closures, after the loss of 10-15 thousand companies in recent years due to the effects of the pandemic. A situation that today also makes us see several closed shop windows in the historic center. Now the energy price increases put other companies at risk, 8-10 thousand in the year ”, says Romolo Guasco, the director of Confcommercio Rome. Currently there are no closures due to expensive bills in the capital, but there is a risk in the coming months. From Florence to Naples the scenario repeats itself.