Around 900 restaurants, pubs and fast-food outlets, including 800 facilities owned by self-employed people, have ceased to exist in Slovakia this year, mainly due to coronavirus restrictions, stated consultancy company Bisnode on Thursday. At the end of September there were around 11,600 facilities offering meals owned by self-employed people and 8,700 registered as higher-level business companies.
"Public meal services saw a boom in the past two years, with their number rising by 100 percent over the past ten years, but these facilities are among the most threatened businesses now due to the pandemic restrictions," said Bisnode analyst Petra Štěpánová.
The Public Health Authority has decreed that the serving of meals and drinks indoors is forbidden as of Thursday, with only open-air eating and take-away services allowed. Similar restrictions were in place in the spring, with restaurants reporting a 42% slump in revenues. Bisnode warns that the most recently imposed restrictions could bring most small facilities to their knees, as these usually do not have any robust financial reserves.
