LOCKED DOWN BUT NOT OUT
The businesses tackling local restrictions,
THE fear of lockdowns to come was the final straw for Jenny Miller, co-owner of Fifty Seven Boutique, a chain of family-owned fashion and gift shops across the Co Laois towns of Portarlington, Durrow and the Co Kildare town of Athy. Miller, who was 13 when her mother, Mary, opened the brand’s first store in Portarlington back in 2003, said she didn’t think anything could have such a detrimental effect on the business — until the first lockdown hit.
“We don’t allow ourselves to think too much about the value of the business we lost during those weeks, it’s very depressing,” she said.
With the challenges mounting fast, the pressure was starting to build. The family had to make a choice, and it was a heart-breaking one for all involved.
Fear of a second devastating lockdown in the winter meant the family had to “let their heads overrule their hearts”. After 17 years, which felt like a lifetime of work, the family decided it would have to permanently pull the shutters down on the family’s first store in Portarlington.
On Friday, August 7, with the signage for the upcoming closing-down sale off to print, Miller heard the news — Counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly were to go back into a two-week lockdown following a spike in Covid-19 cases.
It was another hammer blow – she was right about another lockdown, but it had come far more quickly than expected.
“Without a doubt, the speed at which this new lockdown hit us has been the most difficult,” said Miller. “We feel completely blindsided by this. We had been saying that the entire winter will be a lockdown in all but name, so felt that our footfall for winter was going to be very poor and were planning (to close down) for that.
“At no point did we even dream that a lockdown like this was coming for us as hard and as fast as it has,” she added. “So getting our heads around what was happening was the first major hurdle.”
With the new lockdowns across the three counties just over a week old, many businesses are already feeling the strain. The Sunday Independent has spoken with people behind companies large and small across Kildare, Offaly and Laois to get a sense of the impact of a second lockdown and what businesses can do to get ahead of any potential future shutdown.
On Friday August 7, Jim Murphy, chief executive of hotel operator the PREM Group, was sitting in Tulfarris Hotel and Golf Resort, Blessington, Co Wicklow, when rumours started to circulate that a new, localised lockdown was set to hit Co Kildare, where several hotel staff are based.
“I didn’t think much of it at first,” he said. “I didn’t think much of the implications of it until I got home that evening at six o’clock, and the news broke. Pretty much then, all hell broke loose.”
The PREM Group counts the Osprey Hotel, Naas, Co Kildare, as one of its 12 locations in Ireland. Friday night was particularly busy, with Murphy describing it as “pretty much a full house”.
News of the localised lockdown meant hotel guests were eager to get out, with cancellations for future stays then flying in.
“There was a level of panic among our guests,” said Murphy. “They wanted to get out of Kildare; it was bizarre.”
Since the first lockdown ended for hotels, Murphy said the Osprey Hotel had seen a decent recovery.
With the new lockdown, Murphy said the hotel will now be 70pc behind its forecasted revenue for 2020, with low consumer confidence in the locality beyond the two weeks set to bite hard.
Worse still, the lockdown, due to end on August 22, will not only impact this month. The hotel is already receiving substantial cancellation volumes for September. It has also had to cancel some weddings, events and conferences.
The cancellations are not just hitting his hotels in the affected areas. Murphy said PREM Group had experienced other cancellations across the country, particularly in Wicklow and Kilkenny.
Murphy said he feels most for the team. “When the Osprey is fully operational, we would have about 160 full- and part-time employees. We were back to about 90 before last Friday.
“Obviously now, that number is going to come back. We are going to try and keep as many people employed as possible.”
Andy Hogan, the owner of 33 South Main, a bar and restaurant also based in Naas, is also feeling the pinch from the new local lockdown.
Hogan reopened on July 20, having just completed some work at the pub. “We were busy from the get-go in fairness, however it’s a lot more labour intensive for less turnover,” he said. “The level of business for week one was down about 30pc. This was expected; the shortfall was in the weekend drinks business. Food was on par with pre-Covid turnover.”
With things getting back into place, Hogan was set to open a planned 60-seat bar extension to the pub on Friday. The timing of Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s announcement couldn’t have been worse.
“Simply, it [the local lockdown] has decimated it [the pub trade],” said Hogan. “People were starting to come back out again, meet up with friends & family; getting some level of normality back into their lives.
“All that goodwill is now gone and will take more extreme measures, more social distancing measures, more investment into pubs to build confidence back in the sector.”
CO OFFALY
Grainne O’Malley, general manager of Birr Castle Demesne, a large tourist attraction, walking ground and science centre in Birr, Co Offaly, was in the middle of drafting up a report to the board on the business throughout the pandemic. News of the lockdown changed everything.
“I was to send it last week,” she said. “As I’ve said to them, our world has changed completely from where I was last Thursday versus where I am today.”
Birr Castle, which is a not-for-profit venue, generates its revenue through ticket sales. With a view that a weather storm could shut the attraction down for an unspecified time, O’Malley had built up a rainy day fund to help Birr Castle overcome periods of lost income.
But Covid-19 wasn’t the kind of storm O’Malley expected.
The rainy day fund has helped the business survive the past six months. Over the same period, it has lost 70pc of its income.
The two-week lockdown has also seen a deluge of cancellations flood Birr Castle, with thousands of euro worth of ticket sales refunded. The business had recovered over July to 16pc below last year. Last Monday, revenue was down 80pc on the previous week.
Eoin Barra, the founder of Mór Irish Gin, which is made at Arderin Distillery in Tullamore, Co Offaly, said news of the lockdown came at the wrong time for his business. Sales of his core gin product had just begun to pick up a small bit, as people tentatively returned to pubs and restaurants for a drink and food — both at home and abroad.
“It recovered a small amount,” he said. “We started to see signs of export toward the East move again. But, this morning I got an email saying Singapore is not taking anything else because they are back being hit by Covid.
“People don’t want to make decisions,” he added. “I was speaking to a bar manager on Monday about selling Mór. He told us they sold a lot of the product, but the purchasing manager wouldn’t allow them to buy any more product as they need to run down stocks.
“Even though it is selling well, it’s not restocked because of the fears of a new lockdown.”
Barra said the company hasn’t manufactured any gin at the distillery since February and is trying to run down stock that had been prepared for St Patrick’s Day in March. The only thing he had been manufacturing was hand sanitiser, which had helped boost revenue.
Since the new lockdown’s introduction, one of Barra’s Dublin-based customers requested that he not use local couriers to deliver any product, leaving it up to the customer to collect.
Mór has also been forced to put off all new product development for the year. A new product that was supposed to launch in September could also be delayed.
“At the moment we are just trying to hold firm,” he said. “We are kind of getting to the point now where we need to cut down our [cash] burn. Our insurance is the same, and our rent has gone up, as per our lease. We are not entitled to grants because our turnover went up [with the hand sanitiser sales]. We just don’t know.”
In food manufacturing, Vincent Cleary, managing director of Glenisk, a yoghurt manufacturer based in Newtown, Co Offaly, has also seen the new lockdown hit some plans.
While sales of his company’s organic yoghurt have surged by over 50pc, the new lockdown had forced Glenisk to cancel some trade shows and events that had been scheduled for this year.
The new lockdown hasn’t put paid to Cleary’s planned investment in the Co Offaly facility. Glenisk is investing €3m to boost capacity and its research and development potential at the site.
“We are concerned about a potential public perception that businesses are cavalier in terms of the risks of Covid-19,” said Cleary. “While we can only speak for Glenisk, our experience has been that everything possible is being done to stay open safely.
“The unfortunate reality is that we may have to experience rolling lockdowns for some time to come. While we hope it’s not the case, we need to be prepared and recognise that, ultimately, each one will pass.”
The new lockdown resulted in an unexpected boost for Eamon Callaghan, founder of Vision 85, a co-working space in Clonminam Business Park in Portlaoise, Co Laois.
Just before speaking with the Sunday Independent, Callaghan received two calls from businesses looking for office and hotdesk space. Since the new lockdown, he has also had four other firms contacting him to look at the workspace as an alternative to sites outside the county.
“Covid has helped us to speed this [co-working] up,” he added. “The first lockdown forced people to put their foot on the brake; the second one they have had to think about other avenues and something different. That’s probably why I’m getting calls this last week.”
With enquiries continuing to come in for space at the site, Callaghan is also looking at a potential expansion of his co-working model.
The entrepreneur has teamed up with Pat McDonagh, founder of Supermacs, to bring about a co-working space in McDonagh’s Portlaoise Plaza. Callaghan hopes to open the office-sharing space, set to be called Hub 17, in October.
News of the new lockdown was a deflating moment for many in Co Laois, however.
Ashleigh Doyle, a director at CJ Sheeran, a timber pallet manufacturer which employs around 92 people in Laois of its roughly 180 staff, said employees were showing resilience in the face of new challenges.
“It felt like we were back at day one, where everyone was very concerned,” she said.
With the lockdown came new responsibilities for CJ Sheeran. It introduced paperless deliveries for its pallets to protect drivers, particularly with it servicing the meat plants at the epicentre of the outbreak across the three counties.
With the company now well used to the so-called ‘new normal’, Doyle is proud that the company hasn’t had any close contacts at any of its factories.
Despite the lockdown impacting on county morale, Doyle feels it could also act as a positive, in that it could remind people of their responsibilities during these extraordinary times.
“The second lockdown is frustrating and a bit disconcerting, but it is also a reality check for some of us,” she said. “We always say our biggest vulnerability is complacency. If our staff become complacent, or too used to this new normal that they let down their guard a bit, that’s our biggest vulnerability.
“It’s probably good to rejuvenate all of that again and make it really resonate with people,” she added.
“This hasn’t gone away, and we need to keep everything in order.”