➤ ‘LONG-TERM IMPACT IS GOING TO BE HUGE’
As hospitality industry waits for go-ahead to reopen, traders count cost of lost business
FOR more than 12 months the hospitality industry has been unable to trade normally without restrictions. When it was announced with mere hours of notice that Wales would go into a sudden lockdown on December 20 pubs and restaurants were already having to close at 6pm and were unable to serve alcohol.
Since then businesses have been shut for more than three months. For many who opted to stay closed rather than operate under such restrictive measures it has been even longer.
Despite restrictions beginning to ease in Wales the hospitality industry still has no firm date for when businesses can re-open beyond knowing that it will be considered in the latter part of April.
We spoke to hospitality traders in Newport about how the past few months have been and what the future holds.
Sam Dabb runs Le Public Space in High Street.
She said the most recent lockdown has been more difficult as the pandemic has now been impacting the industry for much longer.
During the first lockdown last March most businesses had cash reserves to dip into which could tide them over until the time came to re-open. But a year on finances are running tight.
“It’s actually more difficult as things have been financially difficult for so long we don’t have any savings in the business,” Sam said.
Looking back on the last 12 months one of the most striking aspects is how much the goalposts have moved for the hospitality industry. There have been new restrictions, changing rules on serving alcohol, and different curfews at different stages.
Going for a pint after the first lockdown was a different experience too – a world of table service, masks and visors, temperature checks, and writing your phone number down for the wholly unromantic purposes of Track and Trace. And it has brought its challenges to the industry.
Chris Jarvis manages the Tom Toya Lewis pub in Commercial Street. He said the new conditions last year made it more difficult for his business to be profitable.
“We’ve still got to do Track and Trace. So you’ve got one person on the door taking temperatures. You’ve got another staff member waiting on the table then.”
He said the costs involved in opening with restrictions were considerable. “When we re-opened after the first lockdown my wage bill went up about £2,000 a week.
“I had to reduce my capacity by 50% and I have a big premises. I can still get 100 people even with reduced capacity, but the problem is that it is very difficult to control.
“I had double the number of staff I normally had in just to make sure people were behaving, stopping people mixing or moving between tables etc.
“We are trying to do everything by the book and protect our customers and staff. But what happens is people get rowdy after a few drinks and staff start getting abused.
“It happened a good few times when we first re-opened. I was actually losing money.”
Mr Jarvis added that even though he was currently benefiting from reduced rent payments this was unlikely to apply in the long term.
“We’re paying about £2,500 a week normally. We’re on reduced rent at the moment thankfully. But ordinarily I’ve got to take £8,000 to £10,000 a week just to cover my overhead costs.”
Other smaller businesses appear to have coped better with the changes of the past year.
Sam from Le Pub said there had been help available from the likes of Newport council, the Welsh Government, and other local businesses.
“Track and Trace can be done for free and sanitising solution isn’t really that
expensive. And a few drinks companies gave away free sanitising stations,” she said.
“The only really big financial hit is the fact you can’t operate at anything like full capacity but you still have to pay as many staff due to table service. That’s a massive hit.
“The only expense of Track and Trace is a staff member’s time to ask for details or a tenner on printing QR codes.
“There’s a lot of expense around extra furniture – gazebos and things – but Newport council gave out grants for that, as did most councils in Wales.”
The hardship facing the industry has resulted in many businesses closing their doors across Wales. In Newport the owner of five of the city’s most popular nightclubs announced their immediate closure last October due to the financial impact of the pandemic. El Siecos, the venue inspired by the legendary TJ’s nightclub and run by TJ’s owner John Sicolo’s grandson Ashley, also announced it would not be re-opening after lockdown.
Last week the Welsh Government announced its updated Coronavirus Control Plan which sets out how Wales will move between different tiers of lockdown. Although it is not clear exactly which benchmarks the government will use to decide how and when Wales will move between the different tiers, there are clear guidelines for hospitality businesses when they can re-open.
There will be no 10pm curfew but there will still be strict rules on limited numbers indoors, table service, social distancing, and ventilation. Pubs will also have to follow any rules in place on the number of people allowed to meet in Wales at the time.
Ministers will be considering when pubs, restaurants, and bars will be able to re-open outdoors at their lockdown review on April 22.
Chris from the Tom Toya said it wouldn’t be worth his while to open up outdoors-only.
“Our outdoor space is very small – if I did the garden I’d only get maybe seven or eight people in it. It’s not really fully opening up is it? I feel it isn’t going to help us out really.”
Amy McCann runs McCann’s Rock ‘n’ Ale bar. She said even outdoor opening would be welcome, as it was quite successful last summer.
“To he honest last year when it was outdoor drinking only we did really well,” she said. “The council have given loading bays over the road as well as outside our front doors and it was busy every day.”
She said the additional trouble in managing the restrictions was minimal. “With all the people we had through the doors last year we never had a call off Track and Trace to say someone had the virus in our venue.
“Hospitality is one of the only places that do Track and Trace. That’s why they can link it back to us.
“You don’t give your details when you go to a supermarket – otherwise they would be closed for a deep clean every time Track and Trace contacted them.
“We did always have three of us [staff members] instead of one but it did pay because of the additional space the council gave us.”
There are more immediate worries; the current financial support for hospitality businesses in Wales is due to run out on March 31, with no word so far from the government on further support.
The Welsh Independent Restaurant Collective (WIRC), an independent group representing independent restaurateurs, this week called on the government to provide clarity for traders.
Dan Warder of Top Joes pizza restaurants in Narberth and Tenby said: “The costs don’t go away when we aren’t trading. Rent has to be paid, utilities, loan repayments, and employer contributions to the furlough scheme. Government at all levels has made substantial efforts to help the sector during its forced closure but the reality is that these can never match the losses being incurred.
“The lack of a funding commitment in Wales from April 1 contrasts with Scotland and England where there is clarity over re-opening and where funding has already been announced to help businesses through the transition to the start of trading.”
But there have been causes for optimism too. The rollout of the vaccine in the UK has offered hope to traders that some form of normality might be possible this year.
But with a return to normal still a little way off one opinion shared by most in the sector is that another lockdown must be avoided.
“I think we’ll see some measures for a long time to come. I think masks are likely to be with us for a few more winters,” said Sam from Le Pub.
“And I’d like to see more hand washing and sanitising stations stick around forever. If these things save lives and prevent lockdowns and distancing measures then I’m more than happy to carry on with them longterm. I’m not even thinking about the future. It’s month to month for all hospitality businesses at the moment.”
Chris, of Tom Toya, said he would be looking to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s road map for England which proposes to lift all restrictions from as early as June 21. Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, though, has described such a plan as “fanciful”.
“I’m going by Boris Johnson’s idea – opening up with no restrictions,” he said. “At the end of the day we want people back in. Can we survive much longer? I’m on the base of my backside already. The one thing we don’t want is another lockdown. This country won’t survive that.”
He added that he would be prepare to sacrifice the summer if it meant a good festive season.
“Christmas is the moneymaker for our industry and we didn’t have one last year. We need our Christmas. We need people to be able to come out and celebrate, have work parties, meet family and friends.
“I’d rather a rubbish summer if it means a good Christmas. But they’ve got to do it slowly and properly.”
Amy said the current lockdown had been harder to take but that staying closed for longer would be preferable to another enforced closure.
“This one’s been harder definitely I think as it’s been winter and you just can’t go outside. It’s been too cold or too wet and it feels like a long time we’ve been locked down.
“Annoying as it is we don’t want another lockdown so we are hoping this is the last time we have to close. If it means being closed that bit longer then I’d rather that.”
In an interview on Friday Mr Drakeford said: “Outdoor hospitality including restaurants are on the table for discussion during the second half of April.”
Once there was time to see whether “that has been managed successfully” then “the next step would be to allow indoor hospitality,” the First Minister added.
He indicated the whole hospitality industry would be given the green light to re-open as a block rather than holding back certain sectors like pubs.
Mr Drakeford added: “I think there is such a tension here between wanting to fine tune the rules against the advice you have while trying to keep a clarity of message and helping the ability of people to understand what the rules are.
“I am not sure where the balance would come if you tried to distinguish between different types of hospitality.”
He added it was not “unrealistic” to think indoor re-opening could be a month after premises were able to open outdoors, which would be similar to the steps taken when easing lockdown last year.
He said: “What our own scientists say is that you need three weeks to fully assess the impact. You’ve got to think carefully about that advice and not rush.”