London Olympics to generate £300m for wine trade, says study

London's hotels, restaurants, pubs and bars stand to make an extra £300m from the Olympics - but there are major challenges to overcome as well, new research suggests.

Wine distributor Bibendum reckons that food and drink spend in the capital’s on-trade will soar to £1.24bn during 2012, up from an estimated figure of £917m in 2011.

Roughly half the spend will be made in hotels, while pubs and bars will take about one-third of the total, and about 13% will be spent in restaurants.

However, the research, undertaken with the Local Data Company, also illustrates the potential disruption that this summer’s Olympic Games will cause.

Bibendum said 21% of London’s on-trade businesses – some 2,500-plus venues – will be directly affected by the Olympic Route Network, which will make normal deliveries impossible by closing roads to non-Olympic traffic between 6am and midnight during the Games.

However, that figure rises to 63% when the Alternative Route Network, used in case of emergencies, and the Venue Olympic Route Network, which closes roads around venues outside the Olympic Park, are taken into account.

‘These numbers really opened our eyes to the business potential provided by London 2012,’ said Bibendum managing director Michael Saunders.

‘The challenge for us is to work with our customers to ensure they are in the best possible position to capitalise on the opportunity – and that means working very closely with our customers on issues such as deliveries to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.’

Written by Richard Woodard