How we’ll help YOUR firm beat corona crisis
WHEN the news broke that Britain was going into lockdown, Mark Cribb admits his first reaction was to panic. His 12-bedroom boutique hotel, beachside cafe and restaurant in Bournemouth would have to close, slashing his income to almost nothing – potentially for many months – just as the crucial summer season approached.
But with dozens of staff and his own livelihood at risk, it wasn’t long before his entrepreneurial mind started to whirl.
‘After “panic stations!” my second thought was, “how do we get out of this?”,’ says Cribb, whose leisure company Urban Guild usually turns over £4.5million a year.
Determined to keep going somehow, Cribb has converted the car park of his hotel, Urban Beach, into Bournemouth’s first drive-through restaurant, where customers pre-order, pre-pay and then drive to an allotted bay at a set time where their freshly cooked evening meal is loaded into their boot – all contact-free.
‘We managed to get a website set up in 72 hours and launched last weekend,’ says Cribb. ‘We took
£1,800 compared to a normal Saturday night’s takings of around
£30,000, so it’s a drop in the ocean, but it felt great to be actually doing something. To walk into the kitchen and see the burners on was quite emotional.’
Cribb, who hopes to expand the drive-through service to offer sales of frozen food, says he is living off his overdraft ‘and with the help of some very patient suppliers’.
He is waiting for a £300,000 Government-backed emergency coronavirus loan to be approved.
‘The sector is really on the brink and we need a lot more help from Government,’ he says, ‘but the great thing is seeing the support we’ve got from the community.’
It is stories like Cribb’s, of bravery and a determination to keep calm and carry on even as a severe economic downturn threatens the existence of millions of small British firms, that has prompted the Daily Mail and General Trust, the owner of The Mail on Sunday, to launch a groundbreaking support package in collaboration with the Federation of Small Businesses.
From this Wednesday, small business owners can apply for £3,000 of free advertising in DMGT’s stable of newspapers. Your £3,000 fund will give you access to a branded advert in the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, the i newspaper and the Metro.
On top of that, you will get online adverts on Mail Online, one of the world’s biggest news websites, and Metro.co.uk, which is read by millions across the UK.
To help you get the most out of your fund, a dedicated local account manager from Mail Metro Media, our marketing experts, will be on hand to tailor the advertising campaign to your business and to your customers. We will even create adverts for you if you don’t have them ready to go.
DMGT will hand out 1,000 funds.
But businesses will need to meet our criteria and will be subject to assessment by a panel of representatives from DMGT and the Federation of Small Businesses. To qualify, business owners must employ no more than 150 staff and have an annual turnover of less than £6million.
Your business must also have been in operation for more than six months. Unfortunately, that means the newest start-ups, which may have yet to start trading properly, are unable to apply.
Your firm will need to be in a position to spend the £3,000 fund on adverts in our newspapers before
‘Support from our community is great’
September 30, 2020. Any credit left by that date cannot be carried over.
In their applications, businesses will need to explain how the fund will help them get back on their feet or keep helping them to help their local community. We are also asking you for a brief description of how your company has coped during the Covid-19 crisis. These might include adapting to the lockdown measures by supporting vital services, such as health workers or by getting food to the needy. This will be taken into consideration in the panel’s assessment of your application.
You will need to submit a high resolution version of your company logo and details including the number of employees on the books, estimated annual turnover – it doesn’t need to be exact – and when you would like to start your advertising campaign.
Businesses that are still unable to trade due to the lockdown will be able to say that they do not wish to place any adverts until they can accept customers again.
Some may wish to promote the other work they are doing during the crisis. In short, you will be able to create an advert with us that works for your business and decide when it should appear.
To apply, go to grants.fsb.org.uk. Successful applicants will be notified by email.
Martin Smith, Mail Metro Media’s executive director of Direct Sales, says: ‘Businesses are facing the toughest challenges imaginable and we are committed to supporting them as best we can.
‘As a company, we match our words with action, which is why we are providing £3 million of free advertising for hundreds of small firms, who are so vital to this country’s economy.’
More and more brave businesses are adapting to these extraordinary times – by launching extraordinarily creative new ventures.
The 150-year old Garibaldi pub in Redhill, Surrey, has survived wars, recessions and the threat of being turned into flats. Its general manager Shiv Lewis is determined it will survive the coronavirus crisis as well.
The pub’s off-licence means it is able to sell drinks off-site, but she also wanted to be able to sell essential groceries to the community.
‘We looked at finding a supply chain but all the cash-and-carrys were overwhelmed and weren’t taking new customers,’ she says.
Thankfully, she found MyPubShop, a new, not-for-profit initiative created by the e-commerce outfit StarStock, which enables pubs and cafes to sell online.
Backed by suppliers such as Brakes and Bestway, MyPubShop means pubs can source and sell groceries as well as beer, wine, spirits and soft drinks.
When customers place an order with The Garibaldi via MyPubShop, they are called with a pick-up time and can buy anything from baked beans to freshly pulled pints of draught ale, all contact-free.
‘I’m a complete technophobe, but even I can manage the platform and it’s been an absolute lifeline for us,’ says Shiv.
‘Turnover is still down but only by half, meaning we’ve been able to pay our bills and our suppliers.
‘We’ve also been able to keep an eye on our local community and support our local breweries, such as Pilgrim Brewery in Reigate, so they can keep trading too.’
Sam Ulph, of StarStock, says that the coronavirus crisis meant it couldn’t launch a new e-commerce product as planned, so it launched
‘We’re busy...and that’s to be celebrated’