Lockdown needs to be lifted by the end of June if hospitality businesses are to make enough summer cash to get them through winter, a leading restaurateur says.
Sally Baum, who jointly runs Plymouth’s popular waterfront eatery Jolly Jacks, is praying restrictions will be over in time for her business, and thousands like it, to start earning income while the weather is good.
But she said that might not be enough and is calling on more Government assistance, for instance a cut in VAT.
And she is concerned about how restaurants will open if social distancing and other measures designed to slow the spread of coronavirus are enforced.
“God knows when we can open again.,” she said. “And how we can open when we do. What will be the criteria?
“We need guidance, every restaurant does. If they say we can open, it depends how we can open. Are they going to say we can only have 10 people in at a time? Or does everyone have to sit apart? We have room to do that, but how many staff can come in, and how do we serve people? It’s difficult.”
She said the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions would have to end soon, for the businesses to earn enough cash from the vital summer season.
“June would be lovely,” she said. “This is the time when businesses, not just restaurants, make their money, to get them over the winter. If we can grab some summer before winter starts that would be marvellous.
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“We will have to hit the ground running. We can’t waste time. I’m confident we will reopen, but it depends on how long this is going to take and what happens at the end of three months of furlough.”
Ms Baum would have celebrated 10 years at the restaurant, which she runs with Sue Robson, in May 2020, but has had to put celebrations on hold.
The venue, at Plymouth’s Mayflower Marina, is a popular hangout for celebrities and boasts a clientele that has included Dawn French, James Martin, newsreader Michael Buerk, Strictly’s John Sergeant and teenage echo-warrior Greta Thunberg.
That is one of the reasons the restaurant went into the Covid-19 lockdown in a strong financial position.
But, being unable to open and having no income, Jolly Jacks has had to furloughed 20 staff, apart from two who left for other opportunities, under the Government’s Job Retention Scheme. It also received a £10,000 grant from the Coronavirus Small Business Grant Fund.
But Ms Baum says more Government help would be welcome.
“We are a solid business,” she said. “But we can only stretch so far. Cutting VAT would be great. We pay 20% VAT. But they (the Government) are going to need all the tax they can get when we come out of this.
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“They will have to help us. That goes for all businesses. A lot of businesses are not going to come out of this. It will take its toll.”
Jolly Jacks closed for business when Prime Minister Boris Johnson told hospitality venue to shut on May 20.
Bookings were already being cancelled, and the shutdown scuppered a fully booked Mothering Sunday.
Since then, the lockdown has lost Jolly Jacks valuable bookings from yachting events at the marina and it skipped a potential cash bonanza from the record sunshine month of April.
“The week of Mothering Sunday was an awful week,” Ms Baum said. “We were getting cancellations for the Sunday, it was heart-rending. But then we were told to close and didn’t know until that night (March 20).
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Business Live's South West Business Reporter is William Telford. William has more than a decade's experience reporting on the business scene in Plymouth and the South West. He is based in Plymouth but covers the entire region.
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“Talk about no warning. That was a shock,” Ms Baum said.
Ms Baum and Mrs Robson met as teenagers in the Midlands and became fast friends. Their lives went separate ways until they reconnected as adults.
A trip to Mayflower Marina, where Ms Baum and Mrs Robson and her husband were setting off on a yachting trip to Gran Canaria, introduced them to a restaurant called Astras.
When it became available a few months later Ms Baum and Mrs Robnson decided to take over the venue, rename and refurbish it, and 10 years of success followed.