The boss of a brewery with pubs in Mapperley and Gedling is calling on the government to extend the furlough scheme, saying his firm are ‘on the verge of breakdown”.
Castle Rock managing director Colin Wilde has written to chancellor Rishi Sunak informing him that without support for the hospitality trade in Notts, ‘thousands of jobs will be lost, reports Propel.info
Mr Wilde is asking for a six-month extension to the furlough scheme to be put in place.
In the letter to Sunak he wrote: “Our own revenues across 22 pubs and a brewery are 50% down, but our costs have gone up. Rent and loan interests still need to be met, and the expense of being covid-compliant is extensive.
“Castle Rock has been a successful business since 1977 but that is now changing.
“It is not unrealistic to ask for continued help that will see visible businesses like our through the next stage of the pandemic, which will, in turn, secure our considerable contributions to the economy in the future.
“As a pub group and brewery, operating for nearly 45 years in Nottinghamshire, we are on the verge of breakdown.
“The entire supply chain is impacted by every unfair restriction placed on pubs, with businesses operating in an array of industries taking a resulting hit, from food suppliers to electricians, to marketing professionals, to breweries like ourselves. The list is long and devastating.”
Wilde asked the chancellor for a continuation of the furlough scheme to help pay staff wages and for the removal of employers’ national insurance payments and a VAT rate on beer so the playing field is levelled with supermarkets.
Nottinghamshire has been placed in tier two, which means it has more restrictions than tier one but without the potential financial assistance available to sites in tier three.
Wilde, whose 22 Castle Rock pubs have not been responsible for a single positive coronavirus case, said he has so far been forced to make ten members of staff redundant and reduced his own wages in March in a bid to help the company and retain jobs.
Castle Rock runs The Willowbrook in Gedling and The Bread & Bitter in Mapperley.
