Recovery is not going to Bea pretty

AS a head of sales for food wholesalers BWG, who look after Eurospar, Spar, Mace, Londis and XL, these have been challenging times for Paul Bealin.

The thriving retail trade – particularly outside Dublin city – has compensated for the fact that the other two sides of the company’s business with the service industry and license trade have practically been shuttered.

“An extremely challenging time,” noted Bealin (above), who has 51 salespersons working under him from home.

“And it’s going to get tougher, unfortunately. We’re heading into a big recession.

“Ireland fell off a cliff with the recession in 2007, and while the government now is talking about trading our way through this, borrowing at a lower rate and subsidies have only papered over the cracks.

“We’ve had different presentations from some of the big drinks companies, for example, and the forecast isn’t pretty.

“I think people’s lifestyles will have to change. And then, of course, we’ve still got Brexit. And it’s going to be a hard Brexit.

“So tough times ahead, but we have resilience in our DNA, I think.”

As for the GAA’S response to the pandemic, Bealin is in the camp that wanted to see a faster reaction to events.

“When you look at the government roadmap, I would have expected the GAA to follow a lot quicker, to provide more clarity on what you can and can’t do. That’s what their members are anxious to know,” he said.

“It’s been no different to the government’s response to the hospitality trade, the lack of clarity over the 1m v 2m rule.”

“What amazes me also is that the GAA talks about player burnout and now we’re looking at the possibility of playing off three games in less than 10 days.

“At county level, we’ll have the Championship, then the League in January.”