The future of the hospitality industry is looking “bleak” it’s been warned – as a Dumbarton nightclub owner laid bare the impact the pandemic has had on his business.
Speaking at a West Dunbartonshire Licensing Forum meeting this week, chair Paul Smith said hospitality firms have a rocky time ahead and predicts the worst is yet to come.
He said a lack of clarity on reopening dates is causing huge amounts of anxiety and warned businesses will close as grants come to an end and the furlough scheme winds down.
He also tragically told how two colleagues in the industry recently took their own lives due to the pressures they faced.
He said the future of nightclubs is looking particularly bleak, predicting that they may not even be able to reopen this year.
The lowest level in the country’s tier system does not allow the reopening of nightclubs, leaving a question mark over when that could be.
Speaking to the Lennox Herald this week, Stephen Sunnocks, who owns G82 The Club in Dumbarton town centre, said it’s been challenging to sustain the venue and said he had to make a difficult decision to let staff go.
He commented: “It’s been a struggle to sustain our position for reopening and it’s been hard on the staff.
“We did furlough staff to begin with but it became evident that this was going to be long term and we had to let them go.
“We have no idea when we’ll be able to reopen. The nightclub industry will be the last to open and they have been left behind.
“It’s only recently we’ve heard the government officially mention the word nightclub but it’s being mentioned in the same sentence as people being able to hug each other so I don’t know what that means.”
He said he is trying to remain hopeful that it will one day reopen to partygoers, adding: “When I go and visit the club lying empty it’s as if time has stood still and it’s really sad to see it like that.
“We are the only nightclub in Dumbarton and hopefully we’ll remain an offering in the town but it’s also about whether Dumbarton will be able to sustain a night time economy.”
Announcing the routemap out of lockdown earlier this month, the First Minister said she was hopeful people will be able to enjoy “simple pleasures” later on in the year.
She said: “We have real hopes later on this year of being able to allow gigs, reopen nightclubs, permit social gatherings and family reunions – so that we can all enjoy simple pleasures such as hugging our loved ones.
“Pleasures that I’m sure none of us will take quite as much for granted again.
“But although that point may be in sight – that end is not here yet.”
At the licensing forum meeting last week, Mr Smith said there was a lack of clarity which was unsettling for the hospitality industry.
He said: “The trade is still very anxious with the announcements that have come from the Scottish Government.
“It doesn’t particularly provide the clarity that the trade needs and is looking for. There’s a lot of ifs and buts.
“There are no dates and while the trade accepts nothing is written in concrete, it is unlike our cousins down south who have been given specific dates on when they can reopen with an end date of June 21.
“That’s the clarity we need in Scotland to help hospitality get through this.”
He said the night time industry was particularly looking bleak, adding: “In level 0, nightclubs don’t even get a mention.
“People’s livelihoods depend on it. I know of two colleagues in the sector who have taken their own lives in the last two weeks because of what is hanging over them.
“The view is that the restrictions which will be in place will make it unworkable for nightclubs to reopen.
“It may well be that we don’t see nightclubs getting any fair chance of reopening this year.
“In terms of the rest of hospitality, they will have to close at 5pm or 6pm with no sale of alcohol at all.
“That’s not reopening. It’s nothing more than ‘you can open your doors but we are going to make it so difficult for you’.
“The level of support hasn’t been great in any event.
“It didn’t go anywhere near to contributing to some of the costs that businesses have had to face in Scotland.
“Businesses have had to take on more debt just to survive.”
Warning the worst is still to come, he added: “The prospects for hospitality are bleak.
“We are still in lockdown and businesses are taking a sympathetic view so everything is on pause but the grants and stimulus are coming to an end and the furlough scheme will wind down.
“Then the real casualties are going to start to be seen as we get into late spring and summer and throughout the rest of 2021 and into 2022.
“The predictions of doom and gloom are going to come to bear.”
Forum member and former councillor Craig McLaughlin said nightclubs
drove a huge amount of economic activity.
His comments came after the chair of a report published last month by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the night time economy which concluded that nightlife contributes an estimated £66bn to the UK economy and without major intervention the night-time industry faces “extinction”.
He said: “The nightclub sector is a very important part of the night time economy.
“You have no idea how many other businesses feed off that and you’ll see others going with it.”
