A Perth restaurant owner says his family chose “the worst time in history to open a business” after being forced to close both their restaurant and takeaway.
The family opened their first restaurant in Stanley just over two years ago after owner David Barnett was furloughed as an executive chef at the five star Fonab Castle Hotel.
David received the keys to the restaurant in February 2020 with no idea what the next two years would entail.
After a tough couple of months with strict Covid restrictions, the family decided to open a second premises – a takeaway – just down the road, with the hopes of serving more customers.
But the last few months have proved financially difficult for the family, forcing them to close both venues immediately to avoid bankruptcy.
David said: “The last six months we’ve been on a downwards spiral – I’d say the last three months were the worst.
“The last two years were really tough, we got the keys in February just before lockdown.
“We hadn’t opened yet because we were going to fix it up first, then Covid hit and we weren’t able to open up anyway for about six months.”
Due to social distancing, the restaurant could only serve around four tables at a time and were unable to sell alcohol.
David said that furlough from his previous job and government grants were able to help them survive in the short term and they decided to open the takeaway to allow them to operate straight away without being held back by restrictions.
‘Staffing levels became a big challenge’
But more issues began to arise when the business struggled to secure more staff.
“Because of Brexit, staffing levels became a big challenge,” David said.
“Europeans were just not there anymore to help businesses so now the staffing crisis in the hospitality industry is an absolute disaster.
“That’s affecting more businesses I’d say than the cost of living.”
The family even advertised free accommodation along with a full time wage as an extra incentive for potential new staff with no avail.
David said: “We were just trying to think outside the box to try encourage somebody to come join us and help us drive it forward but we didn’t even get a bite.
“We were offering a flat with a salary – it’s a pretty good offer, just nobody wanted it.”
Cost of living the ‘nail in the coffin’
The family were forced to limit their opening hours due to low staffing levels but David said the recent cost of living crisis was “probably the nail in the coffin” for the business.
“The restaurant had kind of gone down in numbers and with the takeaway, people who used to come once a week started coming once a fortnight so the numbers were dropping,” David said.
“People just can’t afford to go out for food as much anymore.
“On top of that, the cost of all the ingredients and the energy costs – everything was just skyrocketing out of control so the profit line just became non-existent.
“We were paying suppliers with our own money which we didn’t really have a lot of because we didn’t really take much of a wage over the last two years trying to get it up and running.
‘We are proud of what we’ve achieved’
“So rather than bankrupt ourselves completely we just thought we’d have to call it quits.
“I think we probably chose the worst time in history to open a business, I think if we’d opened three years before we’d have been able to survive.
“We are very proud of what we’ve achieved in this time but we just couldn’t take the financial strain anymore.”
David said he’s already received a number of potential job offers since announcing the business’ closure but is even considering leaving the hospitality business altogether due to the current climate.
At the moment, the top chef said he is looking forward to spending some time with his family and finding the right job for him.
