Twelve billion pounds for a failed track and trace. Seven thousand pounds a day for up to 200 consultants on an already shelved Operation Moonshot. Fifty two million pounds on a bridge in London that doesn’t actually exist. Eighty million pounds to repair Big fucking Ben. Twenty two million pounds for Greater Manchester’s entire, almost crippled, hospitality industry.
Twenty.Two.Million.
No matter how many substantial meals are devoured over the next couple of months, it’s not going to be enough to stop many of Greater Manchester’s pubs and bars from starving. And the Tory government have all those job losses, bankruptcies and business closures on their hands. Not that they seem to care as the North/South divide becomes an unbridgeable chasm.
As time was called on non-food serving establishments’ current operational hours at 10pm on Thursday, with the bells ringing out for the commencement of Tier Three, the city’s hospitality industry was plunged into further uncertainty, only 10 days after seemingly being spared the most draconian of restrictions.
“Business had been good since July, honestly above our expectations,” explains Nick de Sousa, owner of Northern Quarter favourite Tariff & Dale.
“It wasn’t like pre-Covid times but The Eat Out scheme boosted August, spreading trade through the week. Outside space also really helped, especially with the ban on indoor mixing of households. The City Council deserve a lot of credit and gratitude for the help they provided and their approach.
“It’s been the last month and a half that has undone all that work. Trade in the last three weeks has fallen off a cliff due to the messaging from government. There are simply not the numbers of people coming into the city and the 10PM curfew was the killer blow.
“I am in disbelief that the government think that the measures will work.”
De Sousa’s disbelief has been echoed throughout the industry, with Martin Greenhow, Managing Director of Mojo similarly frustrated with the lack of funding on offer to establishments with no option but to shutter their doors. A late night city centre staple, infamous for table dancing and some of the most treacherous stairs you’ll ever encounter at three in the morning, Mojo’s Manchester branch, located above Crazy Pedro’s on has had to temporarily throw in the towel, along with sister sites in Liverpool, Nottingham, Leeds and Harrogate, after staggering through the last few weeks of curfew practically punch drunk.
“In many respects the imposition of Tier three was a relief. At least until Tuesday’s announcement, there was no government support for businesses that were being crippled by the curfew and household mixing restrictions. With a move to Tier three we were at least able to access some much needed support for our staff. That said the level of support being offered seems to be completely insufficient. Additionally the grant scheme is little more than window dressing when you consider the level of support it offers in comparison to the fixed property costs and debt costs all businesses have.”
After reopening it’s doors in July, MOJO, despite being best known for what happens inside it’s four walls after midnight, with barely any room to breathe between bodies heaving to ‘The Chain’ by Fleetwood Mac and ‘Tiny Dancer’ (think the tour bus scene from Almost Famous with substantially more sweat), had actually been enjoying a very healthy return to business, reveals Greenhow;
“MOJO as a business returned from lockdown very successfully. We were working with a 60% reduction in capacity but by adopting new methods and systems combined with incredible levels of diligence and professionalism from our staff we were managing to deliver turnover at approximately 85% of our pre covid level.
“Following the imposition of the curfew that collapsed. MOJO Manchester dropped to approximately 15% of our pre covid turnover levels.
“If you compare the last full Friday before the announcement of Tier three with the same Friday a year prior you see in 2019 MOJO Manchester took approximately £10,000, on that last Friday it took £175.”
If those figures aren’t jaw dropping enough, Labour and Co-op MP for Manchester Central Lucy Powell took to Twitter to inform everyone, “Just for some context, the money the Treasury clawed back from GM in business cash grants from March/April lockdown stands at £88m. So government TOOK BACK £88m in Covid business support but now won’t give less than this to support GM businesses now.”
But if MOJO’s recent figures paint a bleak picture, imagine being a newcomer starting up amid a global pandemic, with an uncaring, unflinching government doing all they can to hinder any chance of success you may have envisioned when you first threw open your doors.
This is the reality facing Mecanica, a recent addition to Swan Street, who took over the unit previously occupied by The Quick Brown Fox. After opening on 28th August, the cocktail bar and restaurant from the team behind ClockWork (formerly Ziferblat) had been enjoying a healthy start to life, helmed in the kitchen by Marc Benton, formerly of La Bandera, serving up deli boards and small plates.
Just less than two months later and the stark reality is that major adjustments are having to be made just to keep heads above water, with owner Gareth Harold revealing to us his disappointment with the government’s announcement and lack of sufficient funding.
“It was a reaction of disappointment, the hospitality industry is the backbone of the UK and Manchester, in particular, is renowned for its vibrant bar and restaurant offering. Without adequate funding, those people who work in our industry will not be able to survive. Most venues do not have surpluses of cash in order to support an industry that is struggling because people don’t have the confidence to venture out due to the mixed messages that are being given via the media.”
Mecanica is now aiming to pivot to slightly different culinary offerings, with an At Home service currently being fine tuned while also looking at collaborations with some of their Northern Quarter neighbours.
Such adjustments are set to become commonplace across the county, with independent vendors already offering their services to those unable to stay open unless a food option is provided.
SIS4ERS Distillery in Salford has similarly altered their business model, with Sales and Marketing Director Lucy McAvoy revealing their latest plans, earlier this week, while at the same time shining a spotlight on how stifling the Tories policies are proving to be for thousands of hardworking hospitality and hospitality adjacent workers across not only Greater Manchester, but the whole of the North West, with Lancashire and Merseyside already in Tier Three.
“Following the announcement we find ourselves in a position where we will have to close our tours and gin experiences due to the new tier three guidelines and restrictions.
“Our Gin tours make up nearly a third of our business, they support wages, rent and overheads – they also heavily impact the shop sales of our gin. We can’t afford to simply just stop.
“We have made the decision to introduce an afternoon tea concept into our gin tasting, providing food to keep our experiences open. We can’t wait for an unknown period of time to reopen our doors and we are determined to make this work complying with the new rules.”
And if you thought venues with ample menus at their disposal would be able to weather the storm, think again. King Street’s cavernous pub game playground Flight Club has had to temporarily shut up shop for the second time this year, with a blanket ban on meeting with those outside your own household bubble effectively killing the social aspect which is the darts bar’s hallmark.
In a statement to EATMCR, Marketing Director Juliette Keyte said, “The latest news is devastating. We, like everyone else in hospitality in Manchester, have worked tirelessly since we reopened to look after both our customers and team, whilst bringing back some joy and making up for missed moments earlier in the year. We will do all we can to get through this and we’ll be ready when the time’s right.”
The shared devastations across the industry have spread throughout the county, with countless locals once again without a regular haunt to visit for a pint or three to ease the anxieties of surviving through a global pandemic that is irreperably damaging lives with consistent, sickening assists from a Tory government bungling from one seismic disaster to the next. Thousands more have no idea when they’ll next be able to complete a full shift, wondering how they’ll be able to pay rent, mortgages and bills on just two thirds of their wages, which are unable to be further supplemented with the usual tips that would come their way.
That Covid surveillance figures last week showed that only 3% of new infections can be attributed to hospitality, while 28% have occurred in schools and universities, 27% in care homes and 23% in workplaces, proves beyond doubt that Boris Johnson isn’t so much following the science as he is sprinting furiously away from it as if it were a former mistress clutching a paternity test.
And how about those school and university stats and the hardly conspicuous spike in infections in September. Y’know, when schools returned and, for reasons we will go the rest of our lives without having the slightest hope of understanding, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY were allowed to descend, en masse into halls of residence. Does the fact almost 600 schools across the county have students and teachers isolating not tip off ANYONE in charge that they in fact may just be a bit of a problem? Or the fact Fallowfield, one of the most populous student locations in the whole United Kingdom, became a hotbed for new infections almost overnight, with north of 550 cases being attributed to the suburb? But what do I know? I’m only going off proven scientific research and statistics.
But perhaps fury is best saved for those within the industry, such as Tariff & Dale’s Nick de Sousa, who’s message to the government is delivered with a level of clarity and assuredness the clown in number 10 and his bumbling cartel of fuckwits could never dream of achieving.
What you are asking us to do is akin to asking a surgeon to operate on a patient, blindfolded, with one arm behind our back and the blood supply van having been banned from coming to hospital. The patient will not survive. We need to be allowed to reopen up and trade without draconian restraints like curfews, but safely!
Hear fucking hear.
