Businesses fight back to save jobs and ‘keep the lights on’

With business owners facing the battle of their lives to stay afloat at the moment, a number of Galway restaurants, bars and shops have found inventive ways to stay ticking over in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.

While some always had take-away and delivery services, others have had to change their business model almost overnight just to ‘keep the door open and the lights on’.

One such business is BóTown, a burger restaurant on Dominick Street which was amongst the first eateries in Galway to close its restaurant and switch to a takeaway service.

Co-owner Frank Greaney says the decision was one that was made with a heavy heart and followed some very “long and difficult conversations” with business partner David Fitzpatrick – but was made in the knowledge that it was for the wellbeing of staff and customers.

“Overnight, we changed our business model from a busy restaurant to a stand-alone takeaway service,” he explains.

“We imposed measures to protect staff, deliver a service and provide a facility to collect food; we put in a protective shield at two entrances – one for delivery drivers and the other for people collecting,” says Frank.

A limit on the number of orders at any one time has helped to ensure that there’s no queuing on the narrow footpath outside, he says, and thankfully, business has been good.

Foremost in their thoughts were staff, who he said they did everything possible to keep on. Four full-time staff have remained in their roles, but part-timers have had to be temporarily let go.

“We helped them out as much as possible with filling out the forms for the Covid Payment and we hope when things return to normal, we can take them back,” he says.

Free takeaways have been made available to these members of staff, while a service providing food to people ‘back West’ who have fallen on hard times is also in operation.

Since BóTown opened its doors almost two years ago, it has built up a loyal customer base and keeping in touch with them is hugely important, says Frank.

A social media running challenge for customers has been set up to raise money for charity, with ‘Run for a Bun’ connecting 100 people selected to run or walk 5km a week during lockdown, recording their activity on the Runkeeper app.

The plan is to have a charity run and barbeque for participants when lockdown restrictions are eased – with a €25 entry fee for participants going to support Claddagh Watch waterways patrol. The response has been phenomenal, says Frank, so much so that the initial target of 25 participants had to be capped when applications reached 100.

While some customers ring in their order, many use apps such as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats – all of which take a hefty percentage of what the customer pays for their food. While there isn’t a huge amount of profit to be made, Frank says it’s important to keep going.

“It’s about staying open in some capacity; keeping people in jobs. It’s not about lining our pockets – it’s just to keep the lights on,” he says.

Another business entering the take-away world as a result of Covid is The Twelve in Barna, where Managing Director Fergus O’Halloran says their collection service has been running for the past seven weeks, and has turned out to be a big hit.

“We’ve tried to develop what people wanted; we did three course menu for Mother’s Day and that was very early on in all of this.

“We’ve refined the menu and we test every dish to see what it will be like 20 minutes after it leaves the restaurant. Every week, we fine-tune it a bit; we have a lot of returning customers and they like to see something different on the menu every week,” says Fergus.

As well as this, The Twelve has also started running a ‘Take and Bake’ pizza service where customers can collect all the bits required to recreate the restaurant’s hugely popular pizzas in their own home.

Also famous for its cocktails, Fergus says they’ve now started offering customers nationwide the opportunity to buy them online and have them posted out in vacuum-packed bags – as well as a service whereby customers can pick up a pint of The Twelve’s own brewed stout and lager in one-pint jam jars.

Thanks to these new initiatives, Fergus has been able to keep 15 of their 90 staff on, as well as retaining one part-time role.

“I just wasn’t going to close the doors. There was a lot of social pressure to close at the beginning of this because that was all people could see, but I didn’t want the hotel to go to sleep and to lose our team – we had to dig deep and keep going,” he says.

The Twelve opened its doors in 2007 on the eve of the last financial crash – what they learned then will, he says, hopefully keep them going through this current crisis.

Pubs have been closed since before St Patrick’s Day, and it would appear that they will be one of the last places to reopen.

Crowe’s in Bohermore is one of those pubs trying to find a way through, and with the launch of its barbecue packs last weekend, Mike Crowe hopes they may have found something that will help carry them.

“Our barbecue area is one of the most famous in the city. With this, we’re offering all the products you need to recreate it – the meats, salads, potatoes – in a box ready to go,” says Mike.

“We deliver it ourselves or people collect it at an appointed time – they just pull up and we put it in their boot. They pay by card so there’s no contact.”

Mike, who is a Fianna Fáil city councillor, says there will be big changes required to ensure the hospitality sector has a fighting chance – including consideration of pedestrianisation of parts of the city centre to give outdoor space for businesses to operate.

“This will require radical thinking from some people, and a willingness to change from others,” says Mike.

One of the newest businesses in the city – The Filling Station Eco Store on Abbeygate Street – has also been trying to find a way through.

The shop, which offers package-free goods in an attempt to cut down on plastic waste, was on an upward trajectory before this crisis, but has been hit hard, says owner John Tedders.

To fight back, they’ve set up a website offering postal delivery and collection on two days a week.

At thefillingstationecostore.ie, customers are able to buy what they had been getting in-store and have it sent out to them – and while this is made further difficult by the shop’s commitment to cut down on packaging, containers that can be reused in the future are being provided.

“The people that were supporting me want good organic food without plastic. One woman contacted me to say she was so happy the day we opened for that reason, and said she will support us in any way she can – I think we have built up good relationships with our customers,” says John.

While the future remains uncertain, like so many more businesses, John says he is resolute that they have to keep going.