Tag Archives: Catering business
29 Nov |
Countdown to Christmas |
After the year we have had as a country and with the FIFA World Cup due to end literally a week before Christmas; there is no doubt we’re living in very strange and uncertain times. Yet those in the hotel, restaurant, pub, café and farm shop trades know that in order to make money, we need to be prepared to serve demand as it occurs. Hence our Christmas countdown.
Some of that demand is predictable with bookings for Christmas parties and events. While other demand is more ad hoc. It could literally depend on the weather or on the consumer’s feeling of the need to go out. A long run for England or Wales might dampen demand for those premises without television as people stay in; or become a place of escape for those desperately avoiding soccer.
Being Prepared for the Predictable
When demand comes, you’ll want service to function seamlessly from start to finish. For your Rational ovens this means ensuring that you have all the cleaning supplies you could need for the next 6 weeks. Regular cleaning optimises Rational performance and reduces the likelihood of a failure.
Check your cleaning supplies. Order by 2nd December and there is a reasonable chance that we can deliver before Christmas. If you order no later than 10th December and we have it in stock then you will also beat the 10-15% price increase, which Rational has had to bring in globally effective 1st December. Order either online or call the team on 01454 322222.
Being Prepared for the Unpredictable
If you haven’t already booked a Rational service or maintenance visit before the Christmas and New Year break, it’s probably too late. But we’ll happily arrange a date for January for those in our area.
Most oven breakdowns are unpredictable, but often seem to happen at times of peak demand. While many of AC Services Southern staff take a break over Christmas, there is always an engineer on call dealing with whatever crops up.
For ease of contacting us to resolve your breakdown, below are our opening hours:
In all instances, dial 01454 322222 and choose the relevant option.
- Friday 23rd Office closes at 5.00 p.m.
- Saturday 24th Engineer on call for emergencies
- Sunday 25th CHRISTMAS DAY CLOSED
- Monday 26th BOXING DAY CLOSED
- Tuesday 27th Engineer on call for emergencies
- Wednesday 28th Office open 8.30 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Engineers available
- Thursday 29th Office open 8.30 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Engineers available
- Friday 30th Office open 8.30 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Engineers available
- Saturday 31st Engineer on call for emergencies
- Sunday 1st NEW YEARS DAY CLOSED
- Monday 2nd Engineer on call for emergencies
- Tuesday 3rd Normal office hours resume
While we cannot predict the outcome of the football; working with our catering colleagues, we can make the season less stressful and more productive by using our Christmas countdown!
Published Date: 29th November 2022
Category: Blog, Catering Business, Cleaning Products, News, Rational
Tags: AC Services, Catering business, Cleaning Products, Rational Ovens, service, Servicing
26 Oct |
Saving Catering Business Energy |
With the clocks changing and peak autumn colours reached, now is the time to review hotel and catering business energy costs. Doing it now will maximise profits of the coming festive season and be ready for the winter of 2023.
Many of the changes required on catering business energy will cost some money to implement. Given some sources estimate that catering overspent more than £100Mpa on energy before the cost acceleration of 2022 and is responsible for 8M tonnes of carbon; acting now is good for your future business profit.
Measured start
With any business change, it’s always good to start with measurement. Aside from the regular bill, how do you monitor use? Do you use and does your supplier offer a Smart meter? This gives ongoing readings of your total use. Plug appliance monitors costing £25-30 allow you to check on individual items which use mains plugs. Both enable positive action to reduce waste.
Another conversation with your supplier is whether they are part of the National Grid Off-peak scheme starting in November. Here smart meters enable consumers and businesses to switch some of their use to off-peak hours (typically 1.30-4pm and 11pm to 7am) and receive a substantial reduction on their cost per unit. It also balances the load more effectively to reduce the potential for national and local blackouts.
All caterers could also consider their menu choices based upon the energy required. This is both in the cooking, preparation and storage. Analysis by the Carbon Trust showed that preparation accounts for a quarter of energy use.
Heating balances
40% of total catering business energy use is typically heat. This is skewed upwards by the inclusion of larger hotels, but is key for all in the winter months. A 1°C reduction in temperature can reduce the bill by 8%. Ideal room temperatures are:
- Bars/lounges 20-22°C
- Restaurants 22-24°C
- Kitchens 16-18°C
- Corridors 19-21°C
Key savers are ensuring the boiler is serviced regularly and that thermostats are not badly placed so they’re affected by radiators or draughts. Another one often overlooked is ensuring there is a 5°C deadband between heating and air-conditioning; so that one does not work against the other.
Lighting and water savings
The simple fix is LED and energy efficient bulbs, which can halve the energy used in lighting and will last long enough for the future price increases.
The longer fix is the installation of occupancy sensors to ensure that the lights are only on when needed as there is someone there. The word of caution is to be sensible in areas like corridors and stairwells for safety reasons. These again typically save 30-50%.
Low flow aerators on taps use fewer gallons of water per minute of both hot and cold supplies saving energy and money. Forced air hand driers use 80% less energy due to their efficiency than traditional heated driers. And the simplest saving tip is to remove the scale build-up wherever water is boiled.
Equipment reviews
Refrigeration is a necessary cost for all catering businesses. Regular cleaning and defrosting of fridges and freezers should be a given. But how many of us remember to carefully clean and remove the dust from the coils/panel at the back? Clean panels allow the heat to clear quicker meaning less energy used.
The ideal fill of a fridge is ¾ as this allows air to circulate and food to absorb the cold. Once a fridge has chilled, it uses the same amount of energy whether full or empty. What massively affects energy usage is the door being open for long periods and the fluctuations. It’s worth reviewing:
- how the fridge and other equipment is used and
- optimising by turning off other equipment when not in use.
For equipment it is always essential to consider the whole lifecycle costs not just the cost to purchase. The cost to run a fridge is way higher than the purchase price. Consider the efficiency of all equipment. Tests have shown the two most efficient cooking technologies for catering businesses were induction hobs and combi-ovens. The Caterer estimated that the latter were 25-50% more efficient than the equivalent back in 2015. AC Services would say wouldn’t we, that for Rational efficient energy use has always been a prime consideration.
Act now
Catering business energy costs are set to stay at high levels for some time. Now is the time to act with a mix of easy changes based on reviews of use; and some investment in those that give a longer payback period for the money that needs to be spent.
Our final thought is about community. If your trade only half fills the restaurant, is there space for those who can’t warm their homes to positively nurse a coffee for a couple of hours? Could this be wrapped up into a pay forward scheme, where both are jointly promoted publicly? After all, Covid taught catering businesses to consider all options to survive and manage goodwill.
Published Date: 26th October 2022
Category: Blog, Catering Business, News
Tags: Catering business, Combi Oven, farm shop, Food producers, Hotel, mass catering, Pubs, Restaurant
27 Sep |
World Cups and Catering Reality |
September has been a month of change and upheaval in the UK. The last quarter of 2022 will present increased challenges to the catering sector. Some are unavoidable. The increases in the costs of food and drink and in energy will not go away. These increase uncertainty on the ‘normal’ Christmas rush. While others provide possible opportunities such as the 4 World Cups.
Energy Costs
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will fix gas and electricity prices for all firms for six months from 1 October. This provides some relief for businesses on their energy costs but they will still remain very high compared to last year. Now is the time to take those longer-term measures that catering businesses have been putting off. These will pay off in the short and medium term. Consider:
- Using plug appliance monitors to identify the energy vampires in the kitchen and elsewhere
- Using LED lights eg for the floodlights for outside areas where 30-90% savings can be made
- Food prep and storage areas account for 40% of energy use in restaurants. Defrost, maintain and clean fridges and check the door seals for leakages. The same applies for ovens!
The cost of living crisis will make trade more variable. This might mean turning appliances off, rather than just leaving them on standby. And closing off some areas to use heat more effectively.
It’s good to take some learning from the management of the Queue for the lying-in-state. What is key is effective communication so that the public can understand and be prepared.
When I was young and the pub was getting full, the landlady allowed us to use the back bar. She always told us: “the room will take an hour to heat; and mind we turn off the thermostat, the lights and shut the door when we leave, putting our glasses on the bar”. The same applies today: people will respond positively, if told nicely what and why.
World Cup Opportunities?
World Cups take time from the opening matches to the grand finals. Spread over October to November we have:
- In New Zealand, the Women’s Rugby Union
- In England, the Men’s Rugby League
- In Australia, the Men’s Cricket T20.
While on 21st November the Men’s Football World Cup kicks off in Qatar and runs through to December 18th. With England and Wales both in Group B, like the other world cups, the early matches could be useful opportunities for one-off events. Then it may be a case of how far England progress as to what events could be laid on to bring people together profitably. Although for some catering businesses a big football-related event the Sunday before Christmas, would not be ideal!
Catering Business Necessities
At AC Services, we ‘ve had a very busy summer working with catering businesses to make sure their Rational ovens are serviced and ready to deliver. This year more than previous years, it’s important to think early about the end of year demands.
- Calling us in October, means we can schedule a service that’s convenient.
- Ordering your cleaning materials on-line by 1st November, means we can manage our stocks and lead times from Europe and deliver in good time.
- If the unfortunate occurs and you have a breakdown, as always, we’ll get to you as soon as we can so you’re back in service and making money.
Why? Because we want to be still working with as many of our catering colleagues as possible, when the Coronation comes in the summer of 2023; whichever forecast is right.
Published Date: 27th September 2022
Category: Blog, Catering Business, News, Online Sales, Rational
Tags: Catering business, Cleaning Products, Maintenance, service
01 Sep |
Rational Oven News |
Globally there are only 1,200 certified Rational Service partners. AC Services Southern is one of the 35 serving the UK.
We are responsible for the service needs of Rational users in the South West of England and Southern Wales. This includes the maintenance and breakdown needs of the units and supply of cleaning consumables.
AC Services is also an authorised Spare Parts supplier.
But enough about us. We thought in this month’s blog we’d update the catering trade on people and developments at Rational, they might have missed.
Rational UK people successes
In August, Rational UK announced it had successfully secured the Gold Standard of the Investors in People accreditation. With fewer than 1 in 5 UK companies achieving this status, it demonstrates Rational’s ongoing commitment to developing their own 60+ staff to help customers better.
This news comes a month after Brendon Lane began his new role as MD on 1st July 2022. Brendon brings a wealth of international management experience to the role, most latterly at Honeywell UK, but previously at Fluidra, Epson and Samsung.
Already he has identified the need to continue to focus on increasing uptake of the iVario Pro. Given 2021’s award for Energy Efficiency Innovation in Heavy Catering Equipment at the Irish Foodservice Suppliers Awards; this is sensible with electricity price hikes and over 50,000 sold globally. He is also focused on tackling UK issues around order delays and supply chain in these challenging times.
Interesting Rational developments
In July 2021, the foundations were started on a new factory at Wittenheim, France. This is one of Rational’s two historic production bases. With an investment of over 30M euros, the 10,000 square metre building is due to open in Spring 2023. It will provide the capacity to make 25,000 cooking systems per year when up and running.
Perhaps more immediately useful for UK catering businesses is the development of 10-minute live webinars accessible by Microsoft Teams. Each of the new webinars covers a menu for a specific sector, including pubs, hotels, care homes, food to go and education. Check out the Rational UK website for details of these and other useful Rational oven webinars.
Published Date: 1st September 2022
Category: Blog, News, Rational
Tags: AC Services, Catering business, Rational Ovens
26 Jul |
Make Hay While the Sun Shines |
Given the heatwave of the last week, using the old saying of making hay while the sun shines might seem dangerous. As we all now know, too much sun is not good. But the saying is really about optimising the best of conditions. This is very appropriate for our catering trade today.
The Worst of Times
For many businesses and individuals this is the worst of times. We’re seeing the impacts of:
- Covid and our recovery from it
- Staffing availability
- Cost of living crisis
Covid hit catering businesses badly with lockdowns and false dawns of eat out to help out. Many went bust as cashflows and savings failed. Effective cash management and seizing opportunities to flex business practices such as becoming takeaway businesses, enabled survival. As then, now is a good time to review your catering finances. This will identify what you might be able to risk as a budget in the next 2 months, to have more reserves for the winter.
Finding and keep the right staff has become a bigger challenge. Team management and motivation are even more important skills as is communication. Good managers are clear about what the current approach means for the business and separately what it means for each employee. This means talking, listening and understanding about motivations. It can be a good time to build the team with students and new casuals looking for summer income.
Cost of Living Challenge
Soaring inflation driven by increased commodity prices such as fuel and food costs, has created a ‘cost of living’ crisis. This will have an increasing impact as the year progresses. But for most catering businesses aside from Christmas specials, it’s easier to make more money while the sun shines; not in the winter months.
For most of the trade there are regulars and occasional/holiday clients. The former might start cutting back by coming less frequently or ordering less. The latter need to be attracted in. They might have looser purse strings, because it’s a treat or they’re on holiday. Both can be encouraged to spend more through ‘events’.
An event does not have to be a big thing. Rather it is something that can be promoted effectively with posters, social media and word of mouth. The event could tie in with things happening nationally such as on our event calendar or locally.
It could tie into the cost of living crisis and reward loyalty. This could include ‘Saving Saturday 6.00’ with a discounted shorter menu; or any other time you’re normally less full. Or what about Come Back Monday with fixed amounts off on their second visit. For regulars or those you want to turn into regulars, then why not the old loyalty discount card such as free main course or dessert on their 10th visit.
Whatever you decide to do, the time to start is now while the sun shines. This will maximise the summer cash or create the loyalty habit.
Published Date: 26th July 2022
Category: Blog, Catering Business, Events, News
Tags: Attractions, Catering business, Events, farm shop, Hotel, mass catering, Pubs, Restaurant
26 Apr |
Celebrating 70 Years of Service |
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend is fast approaching to celebrate her 70 years of service to the country and Commonwealth.
She has served longer as the British monarch than Queen Victoria, who managed almost 64 years. And in case it comes up in a quiz, she needs to go beyond 72 years and 110 days to beat Louis XIV of France for the ultimate record as longest serving monarch.
Any way you look at it, it’s an impressive feat of service in the many senses of the word.
Four Day Weekend
The official Platinum Jubilee celebrations take place over the 4-day weekend from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June:
- 2nd June Trooping the Colour from 9-12.30, followed by the official fly past at 1pm
- 2nd June lighting of the beacons across the country at 9.45pm
- 3rd June Service of Thanksgiving at St Pauls
- 4th June Queen to go racing for the Epsom Derby
- 4th June Platinum Party at the Palace broadcast by the BBC
- 5th June Platinum Pageant Procession with a carnival atmosphere at Buckingham Palace
- 5th June official Big Jubilee lunch
In all a good mixture of celebration, fun and traditions, old and new. Trooping the Colour always happens on the Queen’s birthday weekend, but has been moved to a June spot to coincide with the weekend. Beacons have always been lit on the Queen’s Jubilees in what seems to be increasing numbers of sites. While the Queen’s favourite hobby gets a look-in at the Derby, because life cannot always be about work perhaps?
Catering Service
Parties, processions and lunches always provide opportunities for catering businesses of all kinds. So, the question for all is what could you do for this weekend with your catering business? If, for example, it’s hospital catering, how could you mark the key days for staff and patients unable to join the main festivities? If you’re a sports bar is there a link to the Derby to be made? And for all what links could be made to national or local events?
It’s not too late to plan so that food, drink and staff are all available in this opportunity to celebrate and create memories. Start by checking out the many planned events on the official government website. This is a listing of events already planned by geographic area, so there may be an easy link to something already happening. A pre-beacon lighting drinks/meal or watching the beacons in comfort? Even better there is the opportunity to submit your own event to help publicise it more widely as well as telling your local media.
The Big Jubilee Lunch has its own website for more ideas. The key here is that lunches can and will take place on any of the 4 days, not just the Sunday. It’s all about pulling local communities together to celebrate in whatever format that works. This could be a single venue lunch or getting together with others for a multi-stop tasting menu. Or working with local groups to help their fundraising and awareness on one of the days.
Above all the Platinum Jubilee is the opportunity to celebrate service and those who have managed to overcome the challenges that life has thrown at them along the way.
Published Date: 26th April 2022
Category: Blog, Catering Business, Events, News
Tags: Care homes, Catering business, Events, farm shop, Food producers, Hotel, mass catering, Pubs, Restaurant
29 Mar |
Going Forward |
Two years ago, with the onset of the first lockdown, AC Services stopped posting their weekly blog on industry issues affecting their catering clients.
Survival against the changes in the pandemic has been the ongoing critical issue for this industry.
But now most restrictions are gone, as Covid moves from pandemic to endemic status; and it’s time to be going forward.
Catering Cashflow
Going forward means continuing to actively manage cashflows especially with VAT on food back to 20% on 1st April.
The 25th March is technically known as a Quarter Day in legal terms. Last Friday this meant that the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022 gained Royal Assent. An important Act for restaurants, cafes and other catering businesses; because for any unresolved issues over rent debt since March 2020, there are now specific arbitration services to enable resolution by 25th September 2022. It aims to enable a little further breathing space to bring cash in and settle payment plans.
Another great way to boost cash is to hold events and have themes to bring people in. These can celebrate like the Queen’s Jubilee, enable sharing like sports events or raise awareness or money around specific issues. This is why every year we’d kick our blog off with a calendar.
Events Calendar
Our 2022 abbreviated calendar starts with religious festivals and some changed bank holidays. It picks up a sporting flavour with the Commonwealth Games, accelerates with 3 world cups in October and November before FIFA hits in November/December. Worth a quick read to help the planning!
April National Pet Month and National Stress Awareness Month
- April 2 Ramadan begins
- April 15 Good Friday
- April 17 Easter Sunday
- April 7-10 Golf Masters, Augusta, USA
- April 19 Horse Racing, Grand National, Aintree, Liverpool
May Local and Community History Month
- May 2 Early May Bank Holiday
- May 3 Eid al Fitr, Ramadan ends
- May 14 Football FA Cup final. Wembley Stadium, London
- May 28 Football UEFA Champions League Final, Stade de France Paris
June National Smile Month
- June 2-3 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holidays (Thursday & Friday)
- June 6-11 Cycling Women’s Tour UK
- June 15 Father’s Day
- June 16–19 Golf, US Open, Brookline
- June 20 World Refugee Day
- June 27-July 10 Tennis, Wimbledon
July National Ice Cream Month
- July 1-24 Cycling, Tour de France
- July 10 International Don’t Step on a Bee Day
- July 14-17 Golf, British Open, St Andrews, Scotland
- July 27- 7 August Multi-sports, Commonwealth Games, Birmingham
August National Family Fun Month
- August 25-28 Golf, US PGA, Atlanta
- August 29 Tennis, US Open, New York,
- August 29Late Summer Bank Holiday
September National Organic Month
- September 4-11 Cycling Tour of Britain
- September 26 Rosh Hashanah/Jewish New Year
- September 29-October 1 Golf, Ryder Cup, Marco Simone G&C Club Rome
October National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
- October 8 – November 12 Rugby Union Women’s World Cup, New Zealand
- October 15- November 19 Rugby League World Cup England
- October 17- November 14 Cricket Men’s T20 World Cup Australia
November Movember and Road Safety Month
- November 4 Deepavali (also known as Diwali), Festival of Lights
- November 21-December 18 Football FIFA World Cup, Qatar
Published Date: 29th March 2022
Category: Blog, Catering Business, Events, News
Tags: AC Services, Catering business, Events
25 Jun |
4th July Catering Celebration or Bust? |
When the Prime Minister announced yesterday that most pubs and catering businesses could re-open or extend beyond a delivery service on 4th July, many in the sector were already wondering how. In the end it will boil down to an individual business choice.
A Bit of a Muddle
Official guidance and guidelines on what’s required were not available on 23rd June. Indeed, googling catering guidance brings up the Scottish government response as the first option. Given that the opportunity to open only applies to England, that’s not particularly helpful. But we are assured that the guidelines will be updated soon. In reality this will be too late for a 4th July opening for those who decide to open.
As the AC Services’ region is South West England and South Wales, we have some customers who can consider opening and some who won’t hear until 9th July. This is when the Welsh Assembly is next due to announce its decision.
In catering, timing and communication are everything. All catering businesses need to consider whether they wish to meet the opportunity of opening on 4th July or to start communicating to their clients the date when they will be open. They can then plan accordingly and manage the risks.
What might catering businesses need to do?
Details are sketchy of what might be required. It became further confused with the reduction of the 2m to 1m rule. What may be needed is to:
- Provide mandatory table service for drinks as well as meals
- Require staff to wear face masks and wash hands every 20 minutes
- Use app-ordering by customers at table
- Reduce the numbers of tables to comply with distancing rules
- Provide options for sitting outside and perhaps Perspex screens between tables for those inside
- Take all customer details to enable contact tracing should an outbreak occur.
Consider your team and your catering equipment?
Ultimately to open or not after 4th July is a business decision. This should consider whether there is sufficient demand from your customers to fill your restricted venue delivered by a trained team of staff supported by fully operational equipment. This was the decision faced by AC Services at the beginning of lockdown.
As we maintain and service Rational ovens in hospitals and other key services, we could not fully close. We did however have to furlough staff to balance demand against potential income.
With clients already preparing to re-open, we’re getting increasing calls to service Rational ovens. This allows us to unfurlough engineers as the sector begins to get back on its feet.
Calling us before opening allows us to schedule the engineer visits outside of service hours. This minimises both covid-19 risks and the chaos caused when a machine fails in-service. We’d recommend that if your machines have not been used for some time, that they are serviced first as the best way to save costs.
But we also recognise that some businesses will take the risk given Rational’s reputation for reliability. We’re sure that those businesses will understand if we are unable to respond immediately, as we used to, until we have our own team back at full strength. And if it does happen do call us on 01454 322 222 so we can discuss your options.
Published Date: 25th June 2020
Category: Blog, Catering Business, News, Ovens, Rational
Tags: AC Services, Catering business, Servicing
01 Apr |
We’re Still Open for Key Sites |
While this will be our last blog for a while due to the impacts of coronavirus, we are still open for key sites with our core crew. If you’ve had to close please follow our Rational oven close down tips below.
So, if you’re a hospital, care home or an off-site food company with a maintenance contract with AC Services you’re still covered for any breakdowns that occur. If this does happen please call the normal number 01454 322 222 and speak to Helen. She will arrange for our engineer to visit to repair the breakdown.
If you’re already a connectedcooking kitchen, we are able to remotely monitor and identify the fault, which can minimise the time we need to spend with you.
New Customers
If you’re a not a regular AC Services customer, but have a breakdown on a Rational oven in the area we cover of South West England and Southern Wales; we might be able to assist you if you are a key site such as a hospital or care facility.
As we’re sure you understand, we are prioritising our established client base and responding to their breakdowns. This unfortunately means we cannot promise to assist you as promptly as normal and may mean our engineer will be diverted elsewhere. But for key facilities, we will try to help repair your Rational breakdown if we can.
Continuing Business and Key Sites
Obviously, we need to continue to operate within the guidelines issued by the government to minimise the spread of coronavirus. We are considering what impacts this has on the need to regularly service Rational ovens to prevent breakdowns and how we can deliver this over the longer term.
In the meantime, we’d urge customers to ensure that the weekly and daily maintenance routines are adhered to using the approved products. These are available from our on-line shop if your stocks are running low.
Rational Oven Close Down Procedures
If you have closed your kitchen then please do the following for your Rational oven close down.
For Rational SH, SI and Combi Master Plus please watch these handy videos first. Steam tank emptying. CM P tank emptying which is a download.
- Find the water supply and isolate the unit.
- Use the Handshower until it is empty.
- Power off unit and leave door partially open
When returning unit to operation, return power and water
- Use hand shower to rinse water feed system
- Run unit in steam for 30 minutes
- Run short cleanjet
Or for Rational CareControl SG range
- Find the water supply and isolate the unit.
- Use the Handshower until it is empty.
- Follow instructions above to empty tank. If this does not work with the door closed, repeat with door open
- Power off unit and leave door partially open
When returning unit to operation, return power and water
- Use hand shower to rinse water feed system
- Run unit in steam for 30 minutes
- Run short cleanjet
Keeping in Touch
While there won’t be any blogs for the next few weeks, please follow us on Facebook for any updates. Or if you are spending time creating a new strategy for your business why not check out our earlier blogs on trends in catering businesses and show reports.
Published Date: 1st April 2020
Category: Blog, Catering Business, Cleaning Products, News, Ovens, Rational, Self Cooking Centre
Tags: Catering business, Coronavirus
23 Mar |
Covid19 and Catering Businesses |
No one needs telling that we’re living in desperate times when the government orders the closure of catering businesses.
Those who are offering a takeaway or distribution service are currently exempt.
But when the likes of MacDonalds, Costa and Nando’s voluntarily decide to close to protect staff; it’s time to see what has been put in place already for Covid19 and catering businesses.
Government Specific Help for Catering Businesses
Following the Chancellor’s announcements there is some useful information on covid-19 support on the government’s pages . Check this out for the latest info and updates.
The government’s interventions are primarily about continuity so that when the crisis ends pubs, restaurants, hotels, mass catering and leisure facilities are still around to begin trading again.
The first is for staff under the Coranavirus Job Retention Scheme. Here a grant will cover 80% of retained but non-working employees pay. This is capped to a monthly salary of £2,500 equivalent to £30,000 pa. It’s backdated to March 1st and will in the first instance run for 3 months to the end of May. It could be extended. Now is a good time to have an open and honest conversation with staff about balancing pay and a future job. And then getting a grant for the majority of that cost.
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme focuses on the business who turns over under £45M. This provides a government-backed guarantee for 80% of the loan amount. The government will pay the first 12 months interest. The maximum term of the loan is 6 years.
Here the government is enabling catering business to access loans where previous the answer would be no and giving an interest holiday. The full loan amount will need to be repaid. Consider what essential items could benefit from being covered by a loan; and then how you would be able to pay it back from 2021.
Covid-19 Tax and Reclaim Breaks
With immediate effect, all VAT is deferred to the next quarter so the next payment date for any outstanding is the end of June. But treat this carefully as the VAT will need to be paid at that time. And with limited or no income coming in, it will be difficult to replenish that pot.
If you are having tax payment difficulties, the best advice is to call 0800 0159 559 to discuss the Time to Pay scheme. Do this at the earliest opportunity, not at the last minute.
If staff are unfortunate to catch Covid-19 then with an isolation note from NHS111online, as an employer you can reclaim 2 weeks statutory sick pay.
Local Authority Support for Covid19 and Catering Businesses
Some catering businesses have opted to provide or expand their takeaway meals services. This is a good way to liquidate stock or to maintain limited supply from key suppliers. Some local authorities have been quick with suitable advice such as Monmouthshire .
More significantly there are a number of business rate measures that will be enacted by your local authority. These require no action on your part. Business rates for those in hospitality, retail and leisure have been abolished for the Tax Year 2020-2021. A new statement will be issued by your local council.
Local councils will also administer the Retail and Hospitality Grant Scheme and notify you directly. This is based upon rateable value:
- If your rateable value is up to £15,000 you can get a cash grant of £10,000
- For those between £15,001 and £51,000, the grant is £25,000
- Farm shops and micro businesses are not left out. If you are in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief; there is a one-off grant of £10,000.
Cashflow is King
For catering businesses cashflow has always been king. Now more than ever, owners and managers need to look very carefully at their budgets and costs. Work out what is necessary, deal with people honestly and respectfully and access what is available to help for covid19 and catering businesses.
At AC Services Southern we look forward to working with you in any way we can; so that your business can revive when this crisis is over.
Published Date: 23rd March 2020
Category: Blog, Catering Business, News
Tags: Catering business, Coronavirus, farm shop, mass catering, Pubs, Restaurant