Publican Charlie Chawke has expressed concern that pubs' customer numbers may decrease when they reopen as a result of people getting too used to drinking at home.
The Irish Times quotes Chawke as saying, "For New Year's Eve at the millennium, people drank at home that night and had parties and never came back to the pub for New Year's Eve in the same strength after that for New Year's [celebrations]. That was just one night. This could be three or four months."
"A Disaster"
Chawke said that 2020 will be "a disaster" for the pub sector, and added, "No one has ever seen anything like this, it is crazy."
Charlie Chawke's Chawke Pub Group has a portfolio of nine pubs and currently employs 400 people.
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