Staff shortages threaten top West dining pub

STAFF shortages in the hospitality sector have been making news headlines for weeks as landlords, hoteliers and restauranteurs struggle to maintain levels of service – but now the situation has hit a new low as the owner of one of the Westcountry’s highest regarded watering holes has declared he is on the brink of closing for good.

Paddy Groves, landlord at Woods of Dulverton – The Good Pub Guide’s Best UK Wine Pub every year since 2009 – says that he and his partner Sally cannot keep the highly popular business going because of the postCovid staff shortages.

“We’re more popular than ever – we have bookings coming out of our ears – but we simply cannot continue with just one full-time chef and one part-time assistant,” says Mr Groves, who was recently forced to close the Exmoor pub on Sundays and Mondays.

“We have searched and searched – we pay well and we have advertised as much as we can – but we just cannot find a single new member of staff,” he told the WMN. “The final straw came when one of our employees who drives over from Minehead every day handed in her notice. You couldn’t blame her! Because she’s been doing her best to support us, she was just not seeing her husband or family from one day to the next.

“The publicity around staff shortages means a job in hospitality is now regarded as a sort of byword for being rushed off your feet and never seeing your family.”

Mr Groves added: “If we cannot find help in the next few days, we have decided to throw in the towel. This is a nightmare we just cannot cope with any longer – partly because it is mission-impossible for us and partly because we do not want to let customers down or give them a second rate service.

“After all those years of winning top national awards and other successes, we are finished if we cannot find the staff who, after all, are at the very heart of the hospitality industry.”

The closure of Woods would come as a big shock for the remote town on the Somerset-Devon border. “It’s unthinkable – it will knock the lifeblood out of the community,” commented Robin Milton, chairman of Exmoor National Park Authority, who lives near Dulverton. “Woods is always busy – always has been – and as such it acts as a sort of lively hub for the town.

“The closure would have farreaching ramifications, way beyond the loss of just one popular bar and restaurant. Woods not only draws in visitors from far afield who read about it in national newspapers and magazines, it also draws in local shoppers from the wider area who come to Dulverton so they can make a day of it and have lunch or dinner.”

Emma Thomasson, chief executive of Visit Exmoor, added: “The current recruitment crisis is having a devastating impact on hospitality businesses like Woods that are at the very heart of our communities and a huge part of the visitor economy on Exmoor.

“The current threat to an institution like Woods shows how real this issue is. Paddy has delivered a wonderful and unique offering for many years – a warm welcome, fabulous food and wine from a kitchen that champions our amazing local produce. Woods is irreplaceable, customers come back again and again, it’s closure would be heart-breaking for our local community.”