From VAT increases and Covid closures to rising labour costs, business owners talk about sleepless nights over the uncertainty of working in the industry
‘This will be the first year in 58 we’ve never managed to turn a profit’: Irish hospitality sector at breaking point
‘I feel everyone else is being looked after and paid but I’m working twice the hours for half the pay’Trading as a public house since around 1896, I am the fourth generation to run the family business. Pre-Covid, my father operated a seven-days-a-week pub opening for the usual trading hours. As a result of Covid closures and continued costs associated with maintaining the building, I set up a takeaway coffee business to pay some bills. Post-Covid we now operate both a coffee shop and bar .
Don’t get me wrong: I want to look after my staff but I feel like I’m neglecting my mental and physical health trying to maintain our listed building, look after my staff and provide a hub and service to our local community. I feel everyone else is being looked after and paid but I’m working twice the hours for half the pay. This year’sdid nothing to support me or my family but has appeared to have put the final nail in the coffin for small family businesses and other SMEs.
Businesses don’t want inefficient, sluggish, piecemeal grants – we don’t want grants at all. We’d prefer to be able to plan, reinvest and grow without any interference from the Government. Food inflation rocketed, then along came the Government lumping more cost on to an impossible situation. VAT increases and extra wage and associated labour costs, plus more added in Budget 2025, have not only wiped out profits, but wiped out retained profits.
What to do ... Try, push, struggle on and wait for the almost certain closure in January 2025 or make the hard choice to risk even more to survive. With some deep soul searching and research on options out there, I decided to open Hidden by One Society in Smithfield, a similar offering to One Society. It means extending myself personally with everything I have in the hope that the risk pays off and that my business and dreams can survive.
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