England's run to the final of the Euro 2020 soccer tournament bolstered business for food delivery firms in the UK but pubs are lamenting a missed opportunity because of COVID-19 pandemic-related curbs.
Food Delivery Firms
Food delivery firms enjoyed a surge in orders as people gathered in their homes instead to watch the matches.
Online food delivery firm Just Eat Takeaway.com saw orders peak at 2.5 per minute on match days in the UK.
Finals day fittingly had an Italian flavour - orders of dessert Tiramisu saw an uplift in many countries, while pizza outsold burgers, according to Just Eat Takeaway.
Pubs
But pub operators missed out on £9 million in beer sales during Sunday July 11's final because of pandemic curbs on capacity, the British Beer & Pub Association has estimated.
Young & Co's Brewery - 245 of the 273 pubs of which show sports - said that limits on customer numbers and the requirement that all patrons sit at tables are hurting business.
"The opportunity was lost for our business due to heavy regulated COVID restrictions," a company spokesperson said.
Specialist sports bars and pubs were only catering to approximately a third of their usual crowd on Sunday July 11, trade body UKHospitality said.
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