All articles by James Halliwell – Page 6
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NewsReopening safely? There is an app for that…
The BBPA has endorsed an app to help pubs carry out the risk assessments contained in the government’s guidance that sets out how they can reopen safely from 4 July. The free app, called iAuditor, should speed up the process of complying with the checklist of guidelines released this week.
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NewsGood news, but the road ahead is long
Finally, some good news. Ish. Positive things have happened over the last couple of days, but everything is relative. The sheer scale of lockdown, and its devastating impact on eating and drinking out, means simply being able to open for business feels like a big win, even though victory remains a long way away. Of course that negative impact means the base has never been so low. And it’s understandable that perceptions of what makes good news have changed to such an extent, the creeping nature of the way this coronacrisis has developed
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NewsPM confirms 4 July and reduces social distancing
Boris Johnson has confirmed the 4 July as the date when the hospitality industry can reopen, and said the two metre social distancing rule can be relaxed to one. “Given the significant fall in the prevalence of the virus, we can change the two metre social distancing rule from 4 July,” he told MPs. To cheers from the house, he said: “we will also reopen restaurants and pubs” though he added that “all hospitality indoors will be limited to table service, and our guidance will encourage minimal staff and customer contact.”
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NewsLease forfeiture and debt enforcement moratorium extended
The lease forfeiture and debt enforcement moratorium has been extended to 30 Sept. It includes a ban on commercial rent arrears recovery, statutory demands and winding up petitions. A new Code of Practice to facilitate rent negotiations has also been released. The code encourages tenants to pay rent in full where they can but also acknowledges that landlords should provide support to those businesses unable to do so. The code has been developed with input from businesses leaders including UKHospitality.
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NewsD&D plans to open 17 restaurants on 4 July
D&D has revealed details of 17 restaurants it will reopen on the 4 July, on the basis the government lifts the existing restrictions as it currently plans to. The restaurants, based in London, Manchester and Leeds, will commence a phased programme of reopening across the full D&D estate, which totals 43. The rest of its UK restaurants, plus its venues in New York and Paris, will reopen through August and September.
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NewsCosta plans big reopening
Costa Coffee will reopen over 1,100 sites by the end of June, with “heightened safety measures in place for extra reassurance”. Each outlet will feature PPE, hand sanitiser stations and contactless payments. Perspex screens have been installed at counters, with designated pick-up points for delivery and mobile order collections. Two-meter floor signs have been placed inside and outside the stores to reflect current social distancing guidelines.
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NewsSecond lockdown would see one in three operators go bust - Hospitality Leaders Poll
A second lockdown would see one in three hospitality businesses go under, according to the latest weekly Hospitality Leaders Poll by MCA Insight/HIM. It found that 31% of operators said in the event of a second lockdown they would not survive. A further 44% said they didn’t know. On a more positive note, one in four operators said they would be able to survive another period of lockdown.
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OpinionA darker storm lies in wait
“It was, finally, for everyone, a matter of waiting. You waited and you waited, for the hospital, the doctor, the plumber, the madhouse, the jail, papa death himself… The citizens of the world ate food and watched TV and worried about their jobs or lack of the same, while they waited.” That’s from Charles Bukowski’s novel Women, but it feels topical today. Anyone else fed up with waiting? Anyone else frustrated, impatient, angry and worried about waiting?
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NewsRent code of practice a “waste of time” and “waffle”
The code of practice for commercial landlords and tenants introduced by the government earlier this month “changes nothing”, JKS CEO Jyotin Sethi has told MCA. Speaking at MCA’s virtual event The Conversation, Sethi said the code just “encourages productive dialogue between landlords and tenants, which is what we were doing in any case. I think there’s lots more that’s needed, an extension of the lease enforcement moratorium for example, to give more time for those broken relationships and for negotiations to develop. So, for me it was it was a little bit of a waste of time.
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NewsDeliveroo and restaurant CEOs warn of grave damage ahead
Deliveroo has teamed up with a host of restaurant CEOs including Itsu Founder and CEO Julian Metcalfe, Pret CEO Pano Christou, Wagamama CEO Emma Woods, and Neil Manhas, GM of Pizza Hut, to urge the government to provide an increased level of support for the industry. It has sent a letter to the PM, signed by 90 CEOs representing over 1,000 restaurants, to call for action over issues including cutting VAT on restaurant food and extending the JRS for restaurants while social distancing measures remain in place.
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NewsGreggs to reopen 800 stores
Greggs plans to reopen 800 shops for takeaway only on 18 June. All stores will have the by now familiar safety measures, like floor markings to maintain social distancing, protective screens, PPE for staff, a reduced menu, additional cleaning and cash will not be accepted. The business said it had been making a “variety of proposals in return for rent reductions” to landlords and that “all landlords have been informed of our plan to move to monthly rent payments from June. We made our full quarterly rent payment in March as usual.”
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NewsSafety guidelines for hospitality could be “weeks” away
With just three weeks ago before the mooted 4 July deadline for reopening, Dominic Raab has warned hospitality it could take “weeks” for safety guidelines to be produced after the government ordered another review of existing social distancing measures. At the government’s daily briefing, Mark Andrews, from the Shropshire Star, asked about reducing the two metre rule down to one metre for the hospitality industry, what targets would need to be met and how close the government was to meeting them.
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NewsGovernment needs to confirm reopening date, says UK Hospitality
UK Hospitality has said the government needs to confirm a reopening date for hospitality so businesses can prepare for it properly. CEO Kate Nicholls has written to Secretaries of State at BEIS and DCMS, to emphasise the urgent need for clarity. “We need confirmation of the reopening date for hospitality businesses without any further delay,” she said. “Businesses need time to prepare and the first step in giving them some much-needed clarity is confirmation of when they can open their doors again.
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NewsHospitality Leaders Poll: Majority of operators will need large financial support to reopen
Sixty five percent of operators will need a huge chunk of their rent reduced or covered by the government in order to reopen before the end of the year, according to the latest weekly Hospitality Leaders Poll by MCA Insight/HIM. Asked ‘What would be the minimum amount of rent reduction/support you could operate with over the next six months?’, 35% said they would need between 41-60% to be covered or reduced. Another 18% said they would need between 61-80% and 15% said they would need between 81-100%.
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OpinionWhere does this embattled industry go from here?
I despise the coronavirus. To paraphrase R.E.M., I do not feel fine about the end of the world as we know it. Of course it’s not the end of the world altogether, however bad things seem right now everything could be worse. I’m fairly sure North Korea was about to blow everyone up with nuclear bombs a few months back. It could have been longer though, keeping track of time these days is tricky.
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NewsDraft guidelines on rent circulating
A document purporting to be a draft of guidelines relating to future arrangements between landlords and tenants has emerged. However, it makes clear that it is a work in progress, with the first line reading ’DRAFT – NOT GOVERNMENT POLICY’ It goes on to say the code is ’a voluntary Code which seeks to set out principles and good practice in how to balance the interests of landlords and tenants reasonably and responsibly, through as swift and efficient means as possible.’
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NewsTwo thirds of English pubs will stay closed with two metre distancing
Unless the government reduces social distancing from two metres to one, 25,000 thousand English pubs, or two thirds of the overall total, will be forced to stay closed with no hope of reopening, according to the BBPA. It said under the existing guidelines, only one third, or 12,500 pubs, will be able to reopen. If the guidelines were reduced to one metre, 75%, or 28,000 of England’s pubs would be able to re-open.
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NewsHopes for a 22 June reopening dashed at 5pm briefing
The 4 July has been confirmed as the date for pubs, bars and restaurants to be allowed to reopen, business secretary Alok Sharma has announced. Speculation had been mounting that that date would be bought forward to 22 June after positive noises from the PM and press reports over the weekend. However, the business secretary quashed the speculation at the government’s 5pm briefing and specified the 4 July would “be the earliest”.
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NewsSnapshot: Going to a McDonald’s drive thru during lockdown
We’ve all seen the headline grabbing queues outside McDonald’s drive-thrus since they reopened last week. So how is McDonald’s handling the pressure? Having heard rumours of a two hour wait time at my nearby McDonald’s drive thru, obviously the only thing to do was to chuck the kids in the car and join in the fun.
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NewsHospitality Leaders Poll reveals reopening concerns
One third of operators, or 31%, believe they will be able to reopen by 4 July, according to the latest weekly Hospitality Leaders Poll by MCA Insight/HIM. And if they do get the go ahead to reopen sooner, one in four (26%) think they can be up and running within two weeks and one in five (19%) could reopen in a matter of days. Just 16% think it will take longer than the four weeks between now and 4 July.