The Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA) UK recently held a virtual event to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on Britain’s Indian restaurant and hospitality industry.
Moderated by award-winning public relations and media professional Sangeeta Waldron, the panellists included: Lord Karan Bilimoria, Founder and Chairman, Cobra-beer and President, CBI. Cobra-beer is also helping pubs and restaurants offer a deal similar to the Government’s discounted meals in September; Asma Khan of the Darjeeling Express fame, which has an all-women’s kitchen. She’s also Britain’s first chef to be featured on Chef’s Table by Netflix and Vivek Singh, a celebrity chef and of the Cinnamon Club fame who runs 4 restaurants in London and one in Oxford.
Lord Bilimoria said, “It (this sector) employs over a million people so there are a lot of jobs at stake over there. That’s why we need all the help from the government while we are in the middle of this crisis. This health crisis is real and we’re dealing with a disease that’s highly infectious. We’re now going into a second wave and we’re in a much stronger position to deal with it than we were in March.”
With growing queues and crowds around evenings in London outside restaurants, a second lockdown might not be in the best interests of the industry. There’s data to prove why. He added, “Only 5 percent of the new infections come from the hospitality sector, so a lot of people are saying it’s unreasonable to close at 10 o’clock where it’s not where the majority of infections are coming from. We will learn to adapt. We can eat earlier, or they can order after 10pm so that restaurants can remain open and do home deliveries. So, whatever happens, we must try to avoid a second lockdown.”
He also stated that over 400 restaurants opened up and they started doing takeaways to raise £50,000 for the British Asian Trust which helped to raise money for Covid-19 victims in South Asia. Restaurants also showed community spirit and prepared hundreds of meals and delivered them to hospital nurses, staff and doctors.
“Initially the government didn’t listen and in April we had the Bounce Bank Loans which have now been given to over one million businesses which is an average of £38bn bounce back loans,” Lord Bilimoria said. “We got the Chancellor to eventually extend even the Job Retention scheme to October. Today, we are very thankful for the measures that have been announced.”
In 2010 the hospitality industry generated 20 percent of the jobs for unemployed people. This is a vital sector for the UK economy and Indian restaurant industry plays a major role in employing hundreds of thousands of people. He also said that the net number of restaurants that closed during the pandemic is 50, which the resilience of the sector.
Chef Vivek Singh, who was in agreement with Lord Bilimoria said, “These are really hard times. We’re talking about an industry that normally has very difficult working conditions and at this time it is not the easiest career to be in. As soon as restaurants were allowed to open, a lot of restaurants participated in the Eat Out Help Out scheme. But I feel a lot of this would not have been possible, had we not had the measures like Job Retention and Furlough Scheme. It has also opened eyes to structure differently, contracts and salaries differently. We did not want to base our business model on service charge or tips. We do not levy service charges. So, all our employees for the last two or three years have received their wages as house wages - that’s their salary. Nobody plans for this kind of stuff but what it means is that when we are all locked up. When the furlough scheme kicked in, they were all able to receive 80 percent of their wages which was sadly not the case for many other industries who rely on certain wages.”
The Eat Out Help Out scheme cost over £500mn and served over 100mn customers through the unique scheme.
Asma Khan said the idea of feeding and hospitality is in our DNA. She added, “It has taken a pandemic to know about the wafer-thin margins that the restaurants function on. It is a very difficult industry to be in. We don’t go into this to make a fortune. Lord Bilimoria has been amazing in getting the VAT down to 5 percent. So, thank you.”
She emphasised that there’s a need to have a workers’ union in the restaurant industry. Highlighting on the importance she said, “The problem is that if you’re not united, you’ll be pushed around. We need to ensure rights because it has been very hard for us. A lot of women will lose their jobs. Men will select men thinking that this is a tough time! So many women have come to me who have been let go because their employers are worried that they may have childcare issues with schools closing.”
