Cash-strapped businesses are axeing their office Christmas parties and scrapping the traditional festive knees-up in a penny-pinching austerity drive.
Even companies that are doing well do not want to be seen to be partying hard when times are tough for everyone else, events organisers have told the Financial Times.
Concerto, one big London events company, said one in five of its regular customers had cancelled an organised party in favour of a quick lunch or a few beers in a bar. Around half have yet to commit to a formal Christmas bash.
Trevor Foley, an events consultant, said that hospitality businesses were cushioned from the impact of the financial crisis last year because many customers had booked parties before its full effects were felt.
“Some West End hotels are offering Christmas hospitality at £45-£50 per head compared with £120 in 2008,” said Mr Foley.
KPMG has cancelled a Christmas cocktail party for 1,000 guests that was for 30 years a fixture of the business calendar in Birmingham, one of the cities worst hit by recession.
Senior partner Mel Egglenton said: “Our clients have been suffering and it has been a tough year for us too. I was the unlucky guy that had to cancel Christmas.”
Bad publicity is the ghost at the feast for banks. Last year, paparazzi more accustomed to snapping Amy Winehouse staked out Christmas parties thrown by banks, hoping to snap financiers sipping champagne. Lloyds Banking Group, in which the government has a 43 per cent stake, said it would “take a prudent approach to colleague-related activity”.
It is understood that Goldman Sachs, which employs 5,500 people in London, will be sticking to a formula established last Christmas. Then, teams celebrated individually and at each member’s personal expense.
The Dorchester hotel, in London’s Park Lane, has reported heavy demand for private dining rooms in December, perhaps because they provide greater privacy to groups of financiers. The collective belt-tightening looked Scrooge-like to Mike Kershaw, chairman of Concerto, who warned that it would “devastate” many small businesses dependent on Christmas events. The businessman estimated that 15,000 fewer people would attend parties organised by Concerto this Christmas, a 25 per cent reduction.
