It’s all Food & Drink!

To say it’s been a tough time for the hospitality industry would be an understatement to say the least!

We caught up with Noel Preston, Managing Partner of Preston Insurance Brokers in Brighton, to talk about all things food & drink. Noel wanted to recognise some of the amazing businesses we have in our fantastic City of Brighton & Hove and how they have adapted, coped and survived through 2020!

What has been your experience of the food & drink industry during 2020?

My over riding feeling is one of great respect. The lengths some of the local businesses have had to go to, adapting and coping with the various changes thrown at them through the pandemic is very humbling. I personally do not think there has been enough public recognition of how these businesses have responded and the good news stories seem to have been neglected somewhat, so I wanted to highlight some great examples of these.

What have they had to do?

It would probably be easier to say what they haven’t had to do! Adding home delivery and click & collect was often the first phase during the initial lockdown. Then when things started to open again; the social distancing measures required, reduction in covers and capacity, cost of regular COVID cleaning, provision of hand sanitiser and protective equipment such as masks and the like were all direct additional costs to these businesses.

What kind of businesses are we talking about here?

A wide range of businesses in the food & drink industry have been affected; restaurants, pubs, food & drink suppliers to name a few. It’s impossible to provide a roll call to honour all of our superb local businesses in one article but I wanted to highlight just a few as really good examples.

Jo & Co Restaurant

They were just coming to the end of their first year of trading as lockdown presented itself. It had been a good year but lockdown was like running very quickly into a brick wall.

This didn’t stop them though. Very quickly they started up Jo & Co At Home, delivering their renowned recipes and cook at home meals to the local community, keeping them in the mind of the residents and providing a much needed and welcome service during this time.

On reopening and with the advent of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme they were fully booked 7 days a week (which is how long the owners Jo and Peter have been working since March!). The changing restrictions of the various Tiers has of course also been a challenge but one they have risen to as a fine example of how so many smaller independent restaurants have responded.

As a recognition of their efforts, Jo & Co were runners up in the Business Resilience Award category at the inaugural Sussex Virtual Business Awards in December.

Gars Chinese

Another local independent restaurant affected by the pandemic.

Throughout the year Gars normally host a number of events at their restaurant, be it birthday parties, special occasions, corporate events and the like. We have our own annual party at Gars, where we thank our clients and contacts for their business. It was booked for the 2nd April 2020 and subsequently cancelled following lockdown. So immediately, before any impact from the social distancing restaurant restrictions, this was normal repeat business lost.

Again restricted covers on reopening meant skeleton staff, with take-aways or deliveries being dropped off either by themselves or the likes of Deliveroo.

An establishment with the reputation of being the best Chinese restaurant in Brighton & Hove for over 30 years has successfully fought hard to retain their status, quality of service and food throughout this period.

Brighton Gin

Like many a company supplying libations to the food & drink industry, while the pubs, restaurants and visitor attractions who normally buy their product closed, orders reduced significantly.

Celebrating 7 years this year, they too found themselves in a position where they needed to quickly adapt and evolve their business with the advent of the pandemic. This involved utilising their stocks of alcohol to make their own hand sanitiser and expanding their online products and gifts. All of this in a sustainable manner.

Due to their amazing efforts, Brighton Gin won the 2020 UK Spirits Alliance Community Award and the Pivot Award at the inaugural Sussex Virtual Business Awards in December.

Golden Lion Group

Pub Venues: Hove Place, Libation, The Cricketers, The Colonnade, The Ladies Mile, The Long Man of Wilmington and The Plough Inn.

Managing through COVID is hard enough with one premises but when you have seven the challenge increases! Each of the Golden Lion Group establishments are all very different in their own right. Custom is driven by the area they are situated and the demographic of the customers themselves, each having to adapt in slightly different ways or in some cases having to shut their doors altogether.

Some City centre based and others in residential communities meant a mix of takeaway, collections, heat at home, deliveries, all in addition to providing hampers and Christmas dinners to the elderly community.

Whether it is a new or established, large or small business in the food & drink community, the challenges have been huge. The resilience and achievements of these types of business need to be celebrated and recognised.

So, when they are open again, either in a restricted way or back to some semblance of normality, I urge you to support your local, independent businesses and establishments to ensure we have them around in our City for many years to come.

Noel Preston, Managing Partner of Preston Insurance Brokers

www.prestoninsurancebrokers.co.uk