WEAR
WORDS
Wear Business has been asking the big
questions to business leaders across
the region for our weekly e-newsletter.
Here's just a taste of topics we've
covered...
Q: What are the most productive things you've seen businesses
doing as they respond to the unique challenges of Covid-19?
Stuart Reddish, president of Durhambased,
National Federation of Retailers
As rules and regulations changed, our retailers
immediately adapted stores to meet government
guidelines.
Many created digital solutions with delivery
services, click and collect systems, or selling products through
social media.
Dan Makaveli, managing
director, Media Savvy
Since starting Media Savvy 10 years
ago, has often been a thankless
task encouraging businesses and
organisations to be more effective on
digital platforms - in some cases simply using emails properly!
I don't think the business world will ever be the same in our
lifetime - hopefully for the better.
Q: How has your company adapted to people working from home
during the pandemic and how do you think remote working will
shape the future of the workplace?
Paul Carmody, head of IT, Esh Group
We shifted an entire business to home working
within days. We use Microsoft Teams for the
majority of meetings and will leverage Teams
further, replacing traditional telephones with
scalable cloud voice platforms.
This will further support our objective of having a fully scalable
IT infrastructure and frictionless set of services.
Esh has introduced home working as policy, giving greater
flexibility and choice to employees, acting as an incentive to attract
the best talent.
Inevitably it will cause permanent changes to workplace culture,
with documents stored electronically and offices redesigned for
occasional visits, necessary face-to-face meetings and hot desking.
Stuart Hylton, managing
director, Artech Lighting
The introduction of social distancing
measures presented us with a whole
new challenge, especially for our
business development teams.
Most of our client interactions were
face-to-face but during lockdown we embraced remote working
and video conferencing.
Some of our business development teams will continue to
conduct face-to-face meetings, but we have been impressed with
costs and time savings from video conferencing.
Q: What has hit you hardest during lockdown and what are you
most looking forward to as reopening approaches?
Graham Kennedy, owner Bell's
Fish and Chips, Durham
We have five premises and could have
stayed open but I felt we all had to be in
this together so we closed down for the
safety of our staff and customers.
I still went in to our new restaurant and warehouse every few
days and it was depressing. We spent £2.5m and couldn't use it.
Pierre Bertolotti, general manager, The
Impeccable Pig, Sedgefield
We didn’t have time to close properly. It was
Mother's Day that weekend and we had 250
people booked in. We lost most of the stock.
We are at the heart of the village and very
much part of the social circle. We want to get
the local economy going and people to come out
and enjoy themselves again.
Q: Has the chancellor done enough for the entertainment
industry?
Paul Waite, director i-Stage Group
The answer is unfortunately not. i-Stage
Group is an entertainment company based in
Sunderland and we have cancelled over 750
engagements scheduled between March and
September and expect that to increase.
This has had a devastating effect on the
company and self-employed/freelances including our managed
artistes, musicians, dancers, tech personnel, graphic designers,
choreographers, music producers, show producers, promoters
and booking agents. Many have fallen through the cracks and not
received any financial support.
Jay Johal, owner, Rainton Arena
He did a great job initially with bounce-back
loans and grants. However, these funds are not
enough to cover bills and other outstanding
costs.
We had a very good calendar for the rest of
the year and rely on this future business to pay
bills.
Loans are not the answer as that puts us further in debt. We
need access to more grants and funding to keep us going.
How can they just sit back when our industry is such a major
player in the UK economy? We need a clear plan and government
help to keep our industry alive.
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