Businesses facing third shutdown in less than a year

Retail groups blasted the shutdown as 'bewildering', while gyms and bars are just hoping they can survive long enough to reopen.

'We will get through this,' says Edward Finn of One Arena fitness centre/gym at 4 Swan's Nest Business Park, Pouladuff Road, Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins

Bars, gyms, non-essential retail, and clubs of all kinds have resigned themselves to more pain as the Covid-19 crisis continues, with vaccines — now finally arriving en masse — seen as the only realistic way out of the stop-start nature of business.

The question for many will be simply managing to survive that long, they said.

Edward Finn, owner of One Arena health and fitness centre on the Pouladuff Road in Cork, said the latest news was a blow for gym owners, but he remained stoic about the closures.

“We associate the new year with a fresh start, new goals, and a new setting — it seems we are going in reverse," he said. "That can be very difficult psychologically for both owners and clients, compounded with dark evenings and poor weather.

“That new-year influx that gym owners were hoping for won’t happen now, but I think we need to have resilience and realise it will get a little worse before the light at the end of the tunnel comes with the vaccines.

For both business owners and our clients, we can control what we can control, and once we understand that, we can work with what we can for now. We will get through this.” 

Mags O'Connor of the Cornstore Restaurant Group, and well-known member of Cobh and Youghal Golf Clubs.

Mags O’Connor of the Cornstore Restaurant Group, and a respected member of the golfing scene in Cork, scrambled to get a round in at Cobh Golf Club on Wednesday morning as rumblings grew louder that sporting clubs would have to close.

“We have felt safe here," she said. "Golf tends to be socially distant, and it has been so great to get out on the course for thousands of people across the country. 

"For two hours, you would forget the crisis in the country. Even playing bad golf was a blessing!

“Playing golf, or whatever your activity happens to be, is a form of therapy that lifts us when we are down. Hitting the ball on the 10th here in Cobh, it’s the small things in life that we should most appreciate. 

"It’s a pity they must close, but the sooner we can suppress it, the sooner we will be back.” 

Brian and Louise Kenny of the Boothouse Bar, Upper Glanmire in Cork. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Brian and Louise Kenny, owners of one of the oldest pubs in Ireland, of the Boothouse Bar in Upper Glanmire in Cork, said the industry was once more under the cosh.

The Kennys did not offer takeaway drinks, and have remained closed since October. They said it was a hammer-blow to those reliant on that kind of trading.

Brian urged pub owners struggling to survive to engage with their banks, saying they had been pleasantly surprised by the empathy shown.

“Our bank manager was on the phone back in March offering a moratorium, which he extended and extended, and kept in contact all the time," he said. 

"We would urge our fellow publicans to engage as much as possible to find solutions, and hopefully most will come out the other side.” 

The Boothouse Bar dates back to at least 1773 and has been in the Kenny family, barring a few years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, for well over 100 years.

It has survived the Great Famine, two world wars, several recessions, the smoking ban, stricter drink-driving laws, and several other challenges, according to Brian.

“I think we will survive now, having come through so much in our history,” he said. 

Brian and Louise Kenny of the Boothouse Bar, one of the oldest pubs in Ireland. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Managing director of Retail Excellence Ireland, Duncan Graham, said that the Government's announcement that retail will close was “somewhat bewildering”, coming some 48 hours after the Taoiseach said that closing non-essential retail would not have a major impact on the spread of the virus.

Roughly 40,000 retail jobs will be lost during lockdown, Mr Graham said. 

To shut down again will sound the death knell of certain retailers," he said.

Mr Graham added that footfall had dropped by 50% since December 25 compared to last year, while trade in the final week before Christmas was down 20%-30% on last year.

Meanwhile, employers' group Ibec said that the decision to implement stricter restrictions is "devastating" for businesses and service providers who will be unemployed again as they enter the new year.

“While Ibec recognises the need for an increase in restrictions due to the seriousness of the Covid situation in Ireland and across Europe, the move to level 5, most notably the shutdown of non-essential retail outlets, threatens a great number of individual livelihoods across the country," said Ibec CEO Danny McCoy.