Our response to the Covid-19 challenge

Our three prime business objectives in dealing with the Covid-19 challenge are:

1. Protecting and supporting the health, safety and welfare of Employees, Everards Business Owners (Tenants) and their Staff and Communities.

2. Retaining Everards talented Business Owners and attracting the finest Business Owners to join Everards.

3. Ensuring that coming out of this Pandemic, Everards as a business is strong, fit, remaining innovative and well prepared to compete in the future.

The support of the Government in contributing to the delivery of these objectives is much valued and appreciated. Through the fine work of the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) and UK Hospitality, the Government realised early that the hospitality industry would be severely impacted by lockdown measures and responded well to that reality. I would expect the same logic to follow in terms of a new, refreshed package of Government support for the Hospitality sector, as inevitably it will be one of the last sectors to fully come out of lockdown measures.

As a business we have responded to the challenge in a number of ways:

- 70% of Employees have been furloughed on full pay which will be reviewed at the end of May. The Government’s portal to process payments has worked very well.

- Directors salaries have been cut by an average of 30% and the full year Dividend payment to shareholders cancelled.

- Our Everards Family Foundation has donated £50,000 to Age UK Leicester Shire & Rutland. The money will directly support older people in our local community who find themselves in greater need during the Covid-19 crisis and will provide essential services including befriending calls, collecting essentials like food and prescriptions, and getting people to hospital appointments.

- Business Owner Rent payments have been cancelled (not deferred) for both April and May. (We shared the announcement to all Business Owners via video stating that “We are aware that the provision of Government Grants for some Business Owners was put in place to contribute to business expenses including rent. However, wage support payments are only being processed in the next few days (so cash for wages have had to be provided by Business Owners to date) and around 30% of grants are yet to be paid so it is viewed to be too early to consider charging a proportion of grants received to rent”). This position will be reviewed again at the end of May.

- The construction of our new Brewery, Beer Hall and Offices at Everards Meadows continues. Kier Construction has implemented additional social distancing measures and work within the Site Operating Procedures drawn up by the Construction Leadership Council aligned with the latest Public Health England guidance. The primary consideration here is the Health & Safety of the workforce and the public. This has been a monumental effort from all at Kier and also Briggs (who are building and installing our new brewery equipment) and we are grateful for all their hard work. These changes will naturally cause some delay. However, we expect the building to be completed by November. We have decided to delay the actual fit-out of the Beer Hall and Offices until early 2021 with a plan now to open to the public in Spring 2021.

Looking ahead:

-We are encouraging some local authorities to process the payment of grants to all eligible Business Owners by the end of April.

-The Government needs to act now to support those Business Owners operating pubs with a Rateable Value above £51,000 who are not receiving grants. This is time critical. Working with the Industry, the Government needs to find a solution to this challenge without delay. Otherwise many businesses in this Rateable Value category will fail due to not having enough liquidity.

-The extension of the Coronavirus job retention scheme to the end of June has been very welcome. We hope to see further plans laid out to support sector jobs for the length of the pub closures but also once they are open again as increased social distancing measures would continue to impact business owner’s income.

-The plan to come out of lockdown needs really careful thought. A rushed approach makes no sense for anyone and we support the BBPA’s call for a minimum of three, ideally four, weeks notice. If pubs are to be one of the last sectors to come out of lockdown then a new, refreshed package of Government financial support for the pub industry needs to be created and communicated by the end of May. In turn, this will give Companies, Business Owners and their communities confidence and belief in a bright future for pubs.

Stephen Gould, Managing Director