For businesses operating in and linked to the hospitality sector, the pressure must feel incessant and sometimes lonely.
Over the past three-and-a-half years the industry has closed, invested in measures to protect customers, opened, closed again, reopened with restrictions, experienced a slow recovery in footfall, suffered staffing shortages and, most recently, faced spiralling costs of energy and food.
Unfortunately, we all became used to the last-minute delivery of support during the pandemic.
Where’s the trickle-down?
But this time it feels like the 11th hour has already come and gone for some hospitality businesses – and more needs to be done, by all of us.
Hospitality is a vast sector, employing around 2.5 million people across the UK. Here in the north-east it’s even more significant, due to our reputation as a global tourism destination. Support the sector properly and businesses which are strongly associated, including ours, will feel the benefit of the “trickle down” once lauded by Westminster.
Passing on all of the business cost increases ‘simply not an option’
Speaking to our sector colleagues at the sharp end, they’re well aware that passing on all their cost increases to the next link in the supply chain is simply not an option. The end result is that every business is running on vastly reduced margins, yet they still have rising bills to pay and they must still be staffed. Smaller margins and bigger costs don’t make for an easily palatable recipe.
To our governments, the message must surely be the investment made in supporting us through the pandemic shouldn’t be so futile as to willingly allow these normally viable businesses to fail and close at the rate we have seen recently.
And to our civic leaders in Aberdeen , the plea is that campaigns to enhance the city as a vibrant and accessible place must be embraced for the benefit of everyone in the region, and not just for those people who can hop on a bus and be on Union Street in minutes.
While doling out requests to those around us, it is also crucial we look to each other within the hospitality sector. We must do all we can to help ourselves by working together as a community to lift each other up.
That’s why we recently decided to buck the trend and lower our prices.
Caber Coffee’s ‘bold’ decision
It may seem counterintuitive when our costs are rising just as much as the next business. However, we took the bold decision to pass on some recent reductions in wholesale costs to customers, and invest in increasing our range to provide more choice and price options.
As part of that broader view, and looking ahead to the future of hospitality, I firmly believe it is vital for more to be done to highlight the wealth of career opportunities which exist in hospitality, and enhance its appeal as a career choice.
We all need to encourage young people to give greater consideration to the sector when making choices about their future. And we can do this by sharing our experiences and knowledge, as well as the skills which may light the spark in the next generation.
Here again, it’s no use only pointing at other people to do things – we all must contribute positively. For us, that takes a few forms – including us having signed up to the Young Persons’ Guarantee and working with education settings to help deliver SQA barista qualifications.
‘No magic bullet’
In the economic current climate it is incumbent on us to look at how we can do our bit to help.
There is no magic bullet, but I do believe that by working together to make small changes, big things can happen if you take a broad enough view and find the pocket where you can make any positive impact. After all, as Henry Ford said: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
Findlay Leask is managing director of Aberdeen-based wholesaler Caber Coffee.
