Lockdown plan a dog’s dinner, says pubs boss
ONLY six incidences of track and trace contacts for possible Covid-19 cases have been recorded in Brains pubs despite more than 6,000 visits by customers since re-opening in August.
The brewery’s chief executive Alistair Darby highlighted the low number as he criticised the plan to go into a firebreak lockdown from Friday, branding the guidance for businesses a “dog’s dinner”.
Mr Darby said something needed to be done quickly to protect jobs and businesses.
On Monday First Minister Mark Drakeford ordered a two-week closure of all non-essential retail, gyms, leisure centres, bars, restaurants and hospitality venues in a bid to break the increasing spread of coronavirus in Wales.
The firebreak lockdown will come into force in Wales from this Friday, October 23, and run until Monday, November 9.
But the Brains boss, who is responsible for 200 pubs in Wales, said there had been very few cases of track and trace alerts in their pubs.
He told the BBC yesterday: “The point is that we have done everything that was asked of us. We have only had six incidences of track and trace in our pubs, which have served more than 6,000 customers since we re-opened.
“We have done our bit. Now Welsh Government, if they are going to shut us down again, need to do their bit, and fast, to protect jobs and businesses.”
In March Brains announced it was selling off 40 of its pubs. At the time it described the move as part of “a threeyear plan to significantly grow the profitability of our business and to future-proof it for the benefit of generations to come”.
Mr Darby is warning that the new lockdown will have a “massive” impact on the sector. He said: “This is like sharpening a pencil. If you keep sharpening the pencil in the end there is nothing left. You can’t keep chipping away at an industry, knocking it down, and expect it to get back up again in great shape.
“Every time we lose turnover we lay off people, we have to close pubs, sell pubs, the business gets smaller and weaker. It affects not just us, everyone in the sector.
“We have got four days’ notice of closing all of our pubs again. We have had to switch off our breweries immediately this week and we have to work out how to communicate to our staff what is going to happen to them and what support they are going to get in three days flat and we are not clear on that at all.
“It is an absolute dog’s dinner. It is not clear whether this enhanced job protection scheme is going to be brought forward or not and how we gain access to it.”
Businesses in Wales have warned that warned some people may fall between the cracks of furlough and the new Job Support Scheme (JSS) which starts on November 1.
On Monday Mr Drakeford said he had written to chancellor Rishi Sunak asking for Welsh businesses affected by the fire-break lockdown to have early access to the new scheme.
Ian Price, CBI Wales director, has also called for clear messaging. He said: “Businesses are fully aware that public health must come first and have been doing everything they can to keep staff and customers safe whether in pubs, shops, or offices. Getting a grip on rising infection rates now can help to maintain confidence and avoid further restrictions in the months ahead.
“While the Welsh Government should rightly be commended for consulting widely before announcing these new measures the temporary lockdown remains a severe setback to businesses across Wales - particularly in the hospitality, leisure, and tourism sectors which have suffered so significantly throughout the pandemic.
“Transparency and clarity of messaging are key and businesses remain keen to better understand the strategy for living with Covid-19 through the autumn and winter.”
Mr Darby said yesterday: “We employ a lot of people on salaries and we finalise our salaried payroll on a Wednesday. That is tomorrow so we have a lot of salaried people in our pubs who will not be working and we don’t know what support is going to come to them and we have to run the payroll tomorrow.
“These things are put out there to protect the NHS and we understand that. But we are being asked to adapt at incredibly high speed with limited detail of the support.
“We are trying to work out what we can afford to do to fill the gap. Our employees are hugely important to us - they have served us and done a wonderful job since we re-opened. They need support and they need comfort and at the moment we have not got enough clarity on that from Welsh Government.
“We employ 1,500 people across our pubs and there are over 37,000 people employed across the sector and that is not taking into account the supply chain and all the people who look after pubs and deliver food.”
The Welsh Government said that in addition to UK Government support they are making almost £300m available through the Economic Resilience Fund. Businesses can apply from next week.