“I am very upset but I’ve got to make peace with it” - Brighouse hotel and restaurant owner on potential closure

Lidia Shinwell, who lives in Brighouse, expects to make a decision on the future of the business in June or July, but says the coronavirus lockdown has had a devastating impact.

The business employs more than 50 staff, but the consultation does not affect the sister business: the Briar Court Hotel and Da Sandro restaurant, which the owners hope will be open soon within government guidance.

Mrs Shinwell told the Courier: “There’s lots of people sending such wonderful wishes of support and condolences if we do have to take that course of action.

“There’s 20 years of customers we’ve looked after and all been very happy, and it’s come as a really big shock to people.

“There’s lots of memories here and we’ve been at the heart of the community in Brighouse. We don’t just operate for profit, we get involved in the community and I think people feel very close to us in that respect.

“One or two people have a cynical view about it but I think most people know we’re considering everything possible.

“When we were asked to close by the government due to COVID-19 we looked at a takeaway option for the restaurant, but we couldn’t see how that would work because we’d have to take five members of staff from furlough and pay them, plus cost of food and overheads.

“We just didn’t feel that would be realistic for the number of takeaways we’d produce to pay for our costs.

“We were really grateful for the staff retention scheme from the government, that was an absolute blessing because I was so worried about them.

“And we were really grateful when they increased the threshold so that businesses with a rateable value over £50,000 could have a business rates holiday, but we weren’t able to qualify for a grant or a loan.

“We own our premises and some years ago we bought a derelict bingo hall next to us, which was a real eyesore, and me and my husband personally invested in it, for which we needed to take out a loan.

“Even though you’re in lockdown there are still costs.

“We looked at different scenarios like opening in July, August or September.

“They may say restaurants can open in August but we didn’t think we’d be trading at 100 per cent as we were before the lockdown.

“Although people are eager to eat out, there is still a horrible virus out there and people are cautious. There seems to be an aura of fear.

“And social distancing limits the amount of customers we can take in at any one time.

“If we were to open in August we’d probably be trading at 50 per cent of the level of business we’d have had before COVID-19.

“If the business remained open but we weren’t trading, from May 2020 to April 2021 it would cost £70,000 to run.

“In the last two months we’ve had to raise our overdraft £145,000 to pay for things like HMRC, pensions, hire payments, credit card charges.

“We’ve got one supplier bill of £50,000 for food we’ve not paid for yet. It’s only right we pay our suppliers, and we’ve also got deposits to pay back to customers.

“We don’t want to go into administration, we’re not that sort of company that just closes and doesn’t pay staff and costs.

“We’re a responsible business and we’re not taking it lightly, we’re taking a lot into consideration.

“We need to talk to our staff, we’ve just started a consultation process which could last four to five weeks.

“Most of them have got back to us and they’re upset but very understanding.

“We need to talk to them and then we’ll make a decision at the end of June or July but if we don’t do something now we might not be able to pay out staff redundancy or pay our creditors.”

Mrs Shinwell says it would be deeply upsetting to have to close the business.

“I feel like it’s part of my DNA, I’m very closely attached to the business because I market it myself,” she said.

“We’ve got a brilliant team, I’m not doing the work everyday like our team.

“It’s really hard and I’m quite an emotional person so I’ve had to really look at it and think, I can’t get ill over this because I’ve got a family and my own mental health to look after.

“I have to make peace with the process and look at it more as a business because otherwise it would really, really upset me.

“I am very upset but I’ve got to make peace with it.”

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