A Scots couple say they have lost about £25,000 after festive bookings for their new catering businesses were cancelled within 48 hours.
Nico Ewert, a professional chef, has seen success this year after launching his own catering company in August with the support of his wife, Blythe.
After putting the work in during the summer, East Lothian-based Culinarians had seen clients book them up completely for December and Nico was hiring events staff to help them cope.
The business bought a large quantity of stock, equipment and uniforms for their first Christmas, the busiest time of year for the industry.
But with bookings of up to 150 people at a time, the family’s hopes came crashing down when advice surrounding Christmas parties resulted in nearly every client cancelling.
Mrs Ewert told Edinburgh Live they estimate to have lost around £25,000 in revenue following the latest coronavirus announcements as the omicron variant spreads across the country.
She said: "We had steady business through September and October, and then we had a flurry of bookings for December. We're a small new company so we were as fully booked as we could manage.
"Nico had done planning, supplier orders where he'd got meat and vegetables. We were doing some bigger events so we got kitchen fridges and equipment, we even got uniforms made for our shift staff ahead of a busy period.
"Then last week when it came out that you should not risk a Christmas party Nico wasn't off the phone the whole of the next day.
"We started to hear a few things on the Thursday with people asking what our policy was, then on Friday it was a cascade of cancellations. Within 48 hours we had lost all but two very small private events with just one household.
"Nico had already bought most of the stock and even with some events had already started cooking for an event on the Sunday with some things already in to chill."
Like many of those in the hospitality industry, the couple were left at a huge loss, with perishable stock and shift staff who they could no longer offer work.
After leaving a more stable job to start the business a few months ago, the family are "having to take out of our life savings to pay our mortgage."
With the current advice surrounding postponing Christmas parties and social events officially guidance not law, the business has been unable to access any relief funding.
Mrs Ewert continued: “We do take small deposits from our clients but because we understand this was no one's fault, we've offered to hold them and let clients move the dates.
"However, that means at some point we'll have to buy all the stock again so we can't take a salary for my husband out over the winter to pay our bills.
"Even though it’s advice with all the Christmas party stories coming out of Downing Street there is no way any large company in their right mind will go ahead and potentially look bad over it, the risk is just too much.
"There is a huge ripple effect too. It's not just us, there are the people we've hired to work the events that we have to call up and tell we can't offer them any shifts, then how do they buy their kids presents and pay their bills.
"Then there's the makeup artists, the event venues, the equipment hire companies that we use for these events. Everyone is affected and there's no support for anyone."
With over £800 worth of fruit and vegetables alone, Mr and Mrs Ewert had purchased two more freezers to keep what they could for a few months, and have sold a number of batches of soup to make some money back on the vegetables.
Mrs Ewert said her husband had spent the past few days making batches of soup and that friends and family have been buying them up - but they’ve only managed to recoup £320.
She added: “It's just so disappointing. We feel like the government have made this 'guidance' then absolved themselves of any responsibility.
"This was the time the business was supposed to get on its feet and now we're back to square one."
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