Hospitality boom hampered by Brexit and pandemic delays

Описание: (7 Sep 2021) LEAD IN:
Fine food and drink professionals in the UK say the industry is rapidly recovering from the impact of COVID-19, with some businesses doing even better after adapting during the pandemic.
However while demand is high, issues such as Brexit, labour shortages and backlogs at ports mean getting supplies in and out of the country remains a challenge.

STORY-LINE:
The Specialty and Fine Food Fair is back at London's Kensington Olympia, after it - along with most large events - was put on hold in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Attending are members of an industry hit particularly hard by the pandemic, especially those working in the hospitality sector.
One such company is Dylan's, a successful restaurant chain in North Wales.
Forced to close during repeated national lockdowns in the UK, its owners started making Dylan's meals which could be packaged and eaten by customers at home.
"It hit us really hard at first obviously, like all restaurant businesses, we had no business. So it made us think on our feet and rather than sitting at home doing nothing, we decided to develop into a retail range," explains one of the directors of Dylan's, Robin Hodgson.
"So what we decided to do was take our restaurant meals, package them up, make them with the same quality that we would do for our customers inside the restaurant, package them so that people could take them home and eat those same quality meals in their own houses. And it's been a tremendous success."
The UK is currently experiencing food and drink supply chain disruption with a range of issues such Brexit and backlogs related to COVID-19 contributing.
Some supermarket shelves are empty and online shopping is frequently plagued with shortages.
Aware of this, Dylan's decided to capitalise on a feature which has always made it popular - sourcing local materials.
"The big problem with Brexit that kind of snuck in at the same time was that we had problems with the supply chain," explains Hodgson.
"And the big ethos of Dylan's was to try and use as much locally sourced produce as we can. And that's what we've done with our retail range here. So what we do is we try and find the local products and make those into the sauces, into the ready meals that we have now."
Pivoting the business and thinking ahead of the supply chain issue has led to success for Dylan's.
"We've had the best summer that we've ever had," says Hodgson.
Another company whose product is in popular demand is New English Teas.
However their products are packed in India and Sri Lanka and international logistics to get the tea back to the UK are becoming more complex.
"Selling the products has become the easy part, actually getting the product to the customer has been the challenge," explains the company's Sales Director, Adrian Woodley.
Woodley says there's currently a lack of vessels and container space, with the impact of COVID-19 is still being felt at the ports:
"I know ports have been hit certainly globally around the world with the impact of Covid, and the availability of staff to work in the ports. But also some ports are getting very much overrun now because where ports have closed because of Covid outbreaks, products are then being skipped to other ports and that then gets backed up. And skipping ports, vessels that we're shipping to Hong Kong for instance, the products are being diverted because they're not prepared to wait to go into northern China. So again you've got delay after delay."
With many changes to customs and border rules following Brexit, exporting products from the UK to Europe is now more complex and prone to delays.

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