‘We had 45 weddings all booked, then the virus came’

FOR BUSINESS BUT...

IAN Bennett was preparing for what he hoped would be one of best years ever for his business – until Leicester lockdown hit.

The 47-year-old manages the Scotneys of London Road suit hire shop and had been looking forward to a bumper year of kitting out grooms for a summer of weddings which were planned but now, because of the pandemic, have been postponed.

He said: “We do a lot of weddings, they are vital to our business.

“2020 was going to be a phenomenal year for us because a lot of people liked the number and thought it was special.

“Quite a few couples could have married in 2019 but held off to 2020 for that reason – which they might regret now.

“We had 45 weddings booked by March, which is unheard of, everything was looking good – and then the virus came.

Mr Bennett, who took over the suithire element of the next door Christopher Scotney menswear business after it closed 18 months ago, said when the country went into lockdown in March he anticipated it would be “a couple of months” before things were back to normal.

He said: “We realised we had lost a bit of business but just when we were about to reopen for the summer Leicester was hit with the local lockdown, so that stopped us again.

“The government announced weddings would only be 30 people, and then that went down to 15, so, basically, we have written off the majority of this year because of postponements.”

Mr Bennett added: “It’s been a struggle but we are holding on to whatever positives we can.

“People will still want to get married and we are hoping 2021 will be the epic year we thought this would be.”

He said: “We are still optimistic, you have to be, but there is so much uncertainty now.

“I have reopened on Saturdays and I’m having a few meetings and getting some bookings for small weddings but nobody knows when we will be able to get back to normal.

“Everyone is talking about how the restrictions will carry on into next year, and if they are still around in May, which is when we want to be picking up again, it won’t be great.

“But we’re sticking with it because this can’t last forever.”