With the introduction of new restrictions starting to bite within the hospitality industry, McAra Limited is joining our friends, partners, and colleagues across the country to support The Caterers ‘Can the Curfew’ campaign.
As a supplier to the hospitality industry and a number of leading restaurant chains, we too are one of the thousands of SME businesses who will be directly affected by the tighter restrictions expected to be applied later this week, and I would like the Government to provide the research and data that they are basing these decisions upon?
The impact of these new restrictions will hit an already struggling industry even harder, resulting in even more restaurants, hotels, and pubs to close their doors permanently and further job losses.
Tommy Banks owner of the Black Swan at Olstead and Roots in York, highlighted the predicament faced by hospitality businesses perfectly when interviewed recently in The Caterer:
“There are more than three million jobs in hospitality, and it’s frightening to think one in five businesses may not be able to reopen, putting almost one million of those jobs at risk. I strongly think the government needs to reconsider this curfew before a post-coronavirus recovery is no longer possible for our industry.”
Whilst I fully understand the need to contain the increase in the virus, I have yet to see any solid evidence so far that the hospitality industry has been the main cause in the current rise in cases, so why on earth are we as a sector being subjected to a further tightening of our ability to operate, whilst I read today that the government is relaxing travel restrictions to a number of Greek islands, allowing thousands of people to travel and spend money in hotels and restaurants overseas, but not those on their own doorstep?
Businesses will have supplies of food and drink that will potentially be wasted, and this after already having to dispose and write off huge amounts of stock at the start of the lockdown earlier this year.
In addition, the industry has also invested heavily in building safe environments for their customers, spending millions of pounds upon reopening, and yet this seems to have made little or no difference to a government that seems to be making decisions based upon opinion, conjecture, and press rumours rather than facts.
Let’s see the evidence please Boris Johnson before you make decisions that will further hurt the industry I love, potentially beyond repair.
Please join us in also signing the petition which can be found HERE, and contact your local MP to raise awareness of these issues.