Column: 'We were worried Tiptree pub might not survive'

WITH the children going back to school, things seem to be getting back to some semblance of normality, albeit a new kind of normality.

How close this really is to ‘normal’ is yet to be seen.

Reflecting on 2020, it has been an odd six months.

As a business owner, in partnership with my husband, and also a key worker, there have been some stressful points.

However, as a mother of four, it has enabled us, as a family, to take some time out, reconnect and spend valuable time together.

In our normal busy lives, this would not have been possible otherwise.

While covid-19 initially broke out in China in January, it wasn’t until March 9 when Italy imposed a national lockdown that it really hit home what was potentially heading our way.

A quick conversation with my cousin in the north of Italy outlined the situation there.

She was only able to leave the house for work and essential shopping, her husband was confined to the home. They had to take extra precautions as he needed to shield for health reasons.

I was hopeful the UK would avoid the pandemic. How naive was I!

March 12 saw the Prime Minister announce that covid-19 was now a global pandemic.

Those over 70 were advised not go on cruise ships and schools told not to go on international trips. Schools were told not to close and major sporting events were not banned.

The general advice was to wash your hands and isolate if you had symptoms.

I was still hopeful we could avoid a lockdown.

This false sense of security was soon pushed aside with the Government press conference on Monday, March 16.

Everyone was told to stop non-essential contact with others, all unnecessary travel, avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues.

The impact on the pub trade was felt immediately - customers numbers dropped and the phone rang with back to back calls cancelling bookings.

We were in a difficult position; we hadn’t been told to close but our customers had been told to avoid coming in!

Then, on March 18, it was announced schools would close from March 20 until further notice.

We were still open but with very few customers.

To try and ensure some income we started offering a takeaway meals service, with delivery to those isolating.

Uptake was low. As a small business employing 20 staff, most of whom had been working for us for years, we felt immense responsibility for our staff and their job security.

We were really concerned that if we could not maintain a certain level of trade/income, we would be unable to maintain their jobs and would need to lay staff off.

On a personal note, we even considered whether if things got worse we would have to surrender the pub after over 35 years of our family running it.

At 5pm on March 20, two days before our busiest day of the year, the Government announced all bars and restaurants must close as soon as reasonably possible.

We closed the pub at 7pm that day, not expecting that it would be 15 weeks before we would be allowed to reopen!

The enforced closure was to be reviewed monthly, so hopefully we would reopen again soon.

We were allowed to keep offering takeaway meals.

The announcement was a mixed blessing.

The newly0announced Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, whereby employers could claim a grant to cover 80 per cent of staff wages for three months would protect our employees, although there was no detail on how that scheme would work or when businesses would be reimbursed staff wages.

It turned out that initially the scheme was not flexible, so staff who were furloughed would not be able to work, even for a wage at a reduced capacity.

Taking into consideration the low uptake in takeaways, the cost of retaining staff with no guarantee of business income, we could see no way of avoiding total closure.

We took the decision to honour all current bookings for the next week but not to continue offering takeaways beyond that.

Our last carvery lunch was served two days later on Mothering Sunday, traditionally the busiest day of the year.

This year we offered a takeaway carvery with free dessert, but only managed to serve 20 customers (95 per cent down turn on a normal year).

After we had finished serving, we spent an emotional day stripping the bar and kitchen and donating all food to local food banks.

The following week was a haze, spent contacting suppliers to cancel orders, searching for and understanding Government guidance and trying to see how we could balance the books to see out whatever lay ahead.

Unfortunately, closing a pub does not mean all expenditure ceases and while most suppliers were flexible (such as our landlord Gray & Sons), others were not so understanding.

I was fortunate that as a key worker my employer not only enabled me to work from home but agreed to increase my hours to full time, ensuring as a family we had some level of income.

March 23 saw everyone being told to stay at home, only being allowed out for infrequent basic necessity shopping, one form of exercise, medial need or travelling to/from work where you can’t work from home.

All non-essential shops, playgrounds etc were ordered to close, with restrictions under kept under review, re-examined in three weeks and relaxed if able to do so.

The next couple of weeks we were in holiday mode, enjoying the weather and spending time together as a family.

It was the first time in over 25 years in the pub trade that my husband had been able to spend a whole day at home without having to rush off to work at some point in the day.

Easter came and went in a blaze of sunshine. Normally a very busy weekend for the pub, this year it was spent as a family in the garden.

Easter was followed with the announcement that current measures would stay in place for another three weeks.

After a month of paying staff furlough wages with no income from the pub, April 20 saw the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme going live.

We were finally able to claim the first repayment from HMRC.

The devastating impact of the virus truly hit home when a few days later a colleague’s mother died from covid shortly after being admitted into hospital.

Apparently, the end of April also marked peak of infections in the UK, with over 26,000 people having died. Little did we realise how high that number would rise.

May and June were spent juggling my job, trying but failing to home school our youngest (we quickly gave that up as a lost cause) and getting the pub garden ready for reopening, while continually monitoring the daily press briefings for any sign of a let up in the death rate.

The expectation was that provided the rate of infection continued to fall, we would be able to open on July 4.

We extended the outdoor seating, cleared and replanted overgrown flower beds and created new beds, all to ensure the garden would be at its best when we were allowed to reopen.

While non-essential retail reopened on June 15, it wasn’t until June 23 that the Government announced pubs could open from July 4, provided we adhered to covid secure guidelines.

Thankfully, after a review, the Government also announced that social distancing guidance would be changed to 1m plus mitigations, where it is not possible to keep 2m apart.

The change meant our total seated capacity was reduced by 50 per cent, as opposed to 75 per cent had we been required to maintain a 2m distance between tables.

The next few days were spent combing through Government guidance and trying to anticipate what 1m+ meant, what mitigations we would need to put in place and order the items required to ensure we would be covid secure before supplies ran out.

We kept our fingers crossed that the infection rate would continue to fall and we would be allowed to reopen on the 4th.

We undertook a detailed risk assessment of our premises and how we worked.

This led to the removal of furniture, measuring out the distance between tables (marking on the floor where they needed to be), installing perspex around the bar, having signage made and ordering hand sanitiser, masks and visors.

As a carvery, we quickly realised offering our normal menu would not be possible.

The key to a good carvery is numbers.

You need a certain steady volume of customers to maintain the freshness of food, limit waste and ensure costs are covered.

It would be difficult to ensure covid safety with a help yourself buffet starter and mains and with reduced numbers the carvery would not provide customer satisfaction or cover costs.

Therefore, after 30 years of serving a carvery, we took the decision to extend our previously successful lunchtime bar menu into the evenings and only offer the carvery on Sundays, with increased cleaning and procedures in place to ensure social distancing.

The end of June saw the long-awaited announcement that pubs could re-open on July 4, with full guidance finally published (a few days later) on how to ensure the premises were covid secure and visitors’ details were records to assist the NHS test and trace service.

On the Friday before reopening, we had all the staff back in staggered sessions to run through the new procedures and ensure they were familiar with all the requirements.

Our priority was maintaining the safety of not only our customers but also our staff.

On the first day of opening we were nervous; would anyone feel confident enough to venture out and would customers adhere to the new measures?

Although initially the number of customers returning was low, it was a great feeling to finally be open and to welcome back our regular clientele.

Recognising the dire impact on hospitality and the need to increase customer confidence, on July 8 the chancellor announced the Eat Out To Help Out scheme, which was to run from August 3 to 31 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

We immediately registered, seeing the scheme as benefitting us as a business but also our customers who would be able to dine out with discounted meals.

The four weeks of the scheme, together with the good weather, boosted customer numbers, bringing in familiar and new faces.

These last six months have caused me reassess priorities.

I have enjoyed having the time out with my family and I will endeavour to make more family time.

The pace of life has slowed down for the better, I get pleasure out of being more aware and tolerant of others and I am grateful for the little things in life - I hope that this lasts!

It has been extremely stressful at times and no doubt it will continue to be stressful until there is a vaccine.

Looking forward, tough times are ahead. Normally December would be full of Christmas bookings by now but that’s not the case this year.

With the support we have had so far and the continued support of our fabulous staff and customers I see things improving.

Hopefully if we all continue to play our part and look out for each other, we, as a community, can ride this out and avoid a second wave and things will eventually return to the old normal.