Many businesses have had to diversify over the period of the Covid lockdown to be able to survive. It is a credit to the people within those businesses that their entrepreneurial skills have meant that they can go forward looking to a hopefully, brighter future. Welsh Country caught up with a few of these businesses and this what they have said.
Starting in the capital, Clare Williams started her business Penylan Preserves growing it from a hobby and ‘sourcing ingredients locally’ still remains one of her mantras. She told Welsh Country of her Covid story:
Penyllan Preserves
Mine is a small story but an important one, I feel, for small businesses in Wales.
Prior to Covid-19 much of my monthly sales was made up of catering sized tubs or jars of my products, which were then used in the Deli’s and cafes/restaurants I supply, in their fabulous menus. As you can imagine these sales fell off a cliff as of the third week of March 2020, and as yet these haven’t come back on line.
After pausing for 2 weeks and taking in how my business could ‘get through’ this time, I made sure my couriers could deliver my products safely, both for the courier staff and my customers. Once I was sure this could happen I started to advertise. I was still open and able to provide my products straight to customer’s doors. Luckily I already had a shop facility on my website www.penylanpreserves.co.uk, which has enabled me to make up some of my lost catering sales. This meant I needed to ‘pivot’ and produce more retail jars rather than catering sizes. My jar suppliers Compak have been great and getting hold of stock has not been an issue, and the delivery drivers have also been great ensuring safe social distancing at each drop.
Prior to Covid-19 I supplied Pettigrew Tearooms and Bakeries, however during the lockdown Pettigrew Bakeries have been a god send. After a little adjustment during the first two weeks of lockdown they started running delivery boxes of their fantastic bread and sweet treats, alongside other staples, such as cheese, milk, flour, preserves (mine) and scotch eggs. These boxes have seen my jars reach new customers across Cardiff and the surrounding areas. I am hoping that buying local will continue after lockdown is lifted, and people remember the food companies who continued to work to bring those at home the most fantastic food possible.
I was part of two fantastic initiatives to help the feed the NHS staff at the Heath and across South Wales. One initiative started by Kev from Holy Yolks managed to provide ‘Care Packages’ over 10 weeks to between 4-6 NHS sites from Newport in the East to Llanstrisant in the West and Merthyr Tydfil in the North to Llandough in the South. It was an absolute pleasure to be part of the 20+ small independent food producer group that brought smiles to the faces of the NHS staff working so hard.
I’d like to take this chance to thank all customers who have purchased my preserves during Covid-19 as it has meant my business has survived and I am now looking forward to the rest of 2020.
Visit: penylanpreserves.co.uk
Each business has different hurdles to get over as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Michael Cooke of Gwynedd based Mountain Mead, tells of his Covid story added to usual issues that occur in businesses large, small or micro.
Mountain Mead Ltd.
Mead is embedded in Welsh culture. It has a long and rich history in Wales and is currently enjoying a surge in popularity and demand across the world. Mountain Mead Ltd. is run by Michael Cooke in Tregarth, Gwynedd and the Covid-19 crisis has meant the business has had to adapt to carry on trading.
The business was established in 2016 by two friends, Michael Cooke and Jacob Milner but Jacob left the company in 2019 after the birth of his second child. The business operated from one of Jacob’s outbuildings and at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic the lease was up and the business needed to relocate.
“We were looking ahead to a year of B2C events at food festivals, medieval festivals and Christmas fairs but almost all of these were cancelled, meaning our ability to generate income had been pulled out from under our feet. This left us unable to commit to a new commercial lease and shoulder the financial burden of fitting out a new, larger production facility.”
The business was forced to accelerate plans to broaden its online retail activity via its website as well as various other platforms with encouraging results.
“Although we have lost out on a significant portion of our expected income this year, we have managed to carry on trading and have generated enough income to relocate to a small outbuilding owned by the company’s sole director. We are currently waiting for the change of use planning consent, and the alcohol premises licence for this building which will allow us to carry on producing and selling mead until the effects of the pandemic pass and we can continue our plans to move to a larger production facility.”
“We are fortunate that a change of premises was already planned so we have enough stock to keep trading while we wait for the administrative process to be completed. For us, this move has allowed us to keep our overheads low and gives us time to re-evaluate how the business will generate income looking to the future.
“So far, we have not been eligible for any of the Covid-19 grants which has been a source of much frustration and taken up a lot of time trying to access funding. We should have been eligible for the first grant that was based on our premises but when we tried to find our NDR reference number, we were told by the council that we weren’t on the list. We were very surprised by this as the council uses our non-domestic rating to charge us a fee each year for our alcohol premises licence. One department has a rating for us, but the department that matters does not.”
Looking ahead, we are feeling optimistic about future events and recommencing trading face to face. We have seen a lot of consumers looking to their local area to source produce and we hope that momentum continues post Covid-19 as Wales has a lot to offer from the food and drink sector. We have some new product launches planned and hope to make it to a few Christmas events later this year.
Visit: mountainmead.co.uk
Wales has such a diverse range of superb micro and small businesses across the food and drink sector. On the outskirts of Carmarthen, Lisa Fearn now has the permanent home of a converted barn bringing the Pumpkin Patch Kitchen and Garden all under the umbrella of YSied. Lisa has always run a wonderful, eclectic business and this appears to be continued as she tells Welsh Country of her Covid story:
The Pumpkin Patch Kitchen & Garden @YSied
We’ve been very busy during the Covid lockdown, but we’ve had to think of new and exciting ways to keep the business going and offer something attractive to our customers.
We’re quite excited to have a new range of children’s baking boxes now available, launched mid-June, as a one off single online purchase, but also as a monthly subscription. It’s our response to the Covid lockdown and it’s what’s kept us busy and sane!!
As a cookery school we wanted to continue to offer our workshops in a fun and friendly way and so we started designing our boxes. Our workshops really bring young people together to share their love of cooking and baking, and making new friends in a safe & supportive environment boosts their confidence as well as their kitchen skills. This is something we pride ourselves in.
Feeling a sense of belonging and community is important for our wellbeing, especially at a time when it’s difficult to meet up and socialise. The 2020 lockdown has been tough on young people and so we’ve attempted to design our boxes to be ‘bullet journal’ style, to encourage interaction and a feeling of fulfilment and ownership, with a ‘build your own recipe journal’ element. Empty bullet journal sheets and info cards, make it fun to build a personal file of favourite recipes, hints and tips, as well as related craft ideas and personal preferences.
The first three recipes are honey flapjacks with honey from our own bees, Belgium chocolate brownies, and a classic white bread (using Halen Dewi sea salt) with the option of making rosemary focaccia, bread rolls or pizza bases. More seasonal recipes will follow soon, and a birthday celebration cup cakes box for home parties and family gatherings. Soon, we will introduce our savoury cookery boxes offering plant based favourites like Dahl and tasty soups. Christmas time we will have our Christmas cake and gingerbread house boxes.
All the boxes are bilingual Welsh – English and the packaging is recyclable or compostable, which we believe is important. We also aim to help other local and independent small businesses by using their products in our boxes, such as Y Felin flour, Halen Dewi and others as we make new collaborations during the next few months.
Each month we will offer something sweet or a savoury recipe, so families will soon build up a collection of family friendly recipes. In the spring of 2021 we will introduce our garden box which will enable families to create a little potager garden, full of flowers and veggies to enjoy through the summer and autumn. We will provide bee friendly flowers and magic beans for children to grow and care for.
Long term, I hope that our little characters that feature on our boxes will become alive in a series of short story books for children. The children will go on adventures around the garden and their community and they will learn to cook and care for others. The books will set out to offer comforting words that will help children cope with some of life’s tough situations. The wellbeing and wholesome stories will help children learn how to cope and understand the world around them.
Visit: www.ysied.co.uk
From children to a definitely adult themed business. Dinorwig Distillery set up in October 2016 by husband and wife, Lew Hardy and Jessica Eade, nestled beneath the Dinorwig Slate Quarry, in Snowdonia. Distilleries now proliferate across Wales and being different is essential to succeed, especially at time of difficulty such as the present pandemic. Jessica tells Welsh Country of the Dinorwig story:
Dinorwig Distillery
We are Dinorwig Distillery, a micro gin distillery in the foothills of Snowdonia. We distil London dry gin, using as many locally grown botanicals as possible. Our signature gin, Jin Llechen Las/Blue Slate gin is an intensely aromatic gin distilled with local rhubarb, home grown coriander and oak bark from our neighbouring woods. We love a good G&T, but during lockdown we got interested in lower alcohol alternatives. We came up with the idea of making our own bitters – intense bitter-sweet infusions of roots, seeds, barks and other botanicals. Traditionally, bitters are used to flavour cocktails, and ours can be used in just that way too. However, we find that a splash of our bitters mixed long with tonic over ice makes for a very tasty and satisfying alternative to gin, but with a much lower alcohol content. We are set to release four expressions this summer, the first of these, Gooseberry & Elderflower bitters and Rose & Cardamom bitters, will be available from our website in early July.
Visit: www.blueslategin.co.uk
Travelling south again back into Carmarthenshire, Bev Coombe tells Welsh Country her really tough story that we have heard far too many times. Whatever your political persuasion no one can deny that the governments both Westminster and Cardiff threw money at the business community to keep it alive. This safety net though did have holes in it and despite attempts to fill them too many businesses have fallen through this net getting a pittance, or no financial help at all.
Cegin Mamgu
Unfortunately I did not qualify for any grants or help as a fairly new business with no shop premises, or staff and not being VAT registered, so I had to diversify to survive. Below is what Cegin Mamgu has been up to. I am considering looking for a grant to take the home delivery service further and cover more of rural Wales with a food van doing hot food and also doorstep delivery for chilled orders, specifically for those who are vegan, but also coeliac and soya intolerant. More details later.
Diversify, Supply, Survive
We were a supplier of vegan food to independent shops, markets and cafes as well as a freelance chef service and a pop-up restaurant until the dreaded lockdown. We lost our independent retailers, markets, cafes and chef work so had to diversify and expand our home delivery service in order to survive. Covering rural communities in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, we cater for customers with dietary requirements who were unable to find freshly prepared food. All our dishes are vegan and dairy free, but we added free from soya, gluten, nuts etc tailored to individual requirements and word soon spread. This has been a great success and we are going to continue this service going forward. The menu changes weekly depending on which local fresh ingredients are available.
Dishes start from as little as £1.00 for a snack and £3.50 for a main with puds from £2.00.
Visit: www.facebook.com/ceginmamgu
Some stories are inspirational some heart breaking, but all can be turned into worthwhile businesses with our help by just buying local. Now is the time to make our Welsh pound count, not just giving to charity but by buying what you need from the shop, the food producer and your local market.
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