Welcome to Rise & Shine
We hope you are all managing to stay safe, well and as positive as possible in these extraordinary times. The coronavirus outbreak has affected everyone in the country to a lesser or greater degree but it’s fair to say that hospitality and food and drink have been some of the areas hardest hit. Our whole industry is about bringing people together so we have been left reeling by a virus that demands we stay apart.
Although we have to remain physically isolated at the moment, we see Rise & Shine as a good way of keeping us all in touch with each other during this difficult period. So let us know any positive steps your business is introducing, whether it’s a home delivery service or supporting the local community with new initiatives. This is your newsletter. Tell us your news and we will spread the word to over 20,000 subscribers in the South West hospitality industry.
Please contact our News Editor, Carolyn Moss, at news@breadandbutter.media or call her on 01305 575155. Follow us on Twitter @BreadButterNews for updates.
We promise to do our best to help your business in any way we can.
Robin Alway
Editorial Director
INDUSTRY NEWS
Hall & Woodhouse cancels Business Partner rent
The independent family-owned brewers Hall & Woodhouse are cancelling all rent and service charges for its Business Partner estate and suspending loan repayments for eight weeks from Sunday, March 22nd 2020.
The company said the decision was originally made to suspend these payments for four weeks in response to the Prime Minister’s advice given on Monday, March 16th to avoid pubs, restaurants, theatres, office environments and non-essential travel, to limit the spread of Covid-19. However, following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Friday, March 20th to close all pubs, restaurants and cafes, the decision was made to extend this for a further four weeks.
Chris Chapman, Head of Business Partnerships at H&W, explained: “We are committed to providing our Business Partners with the financial support and advice needed to help them through this period of uncertainty and felt it was only right to take immediate action.
“We are grateful to the Government for making available employee retention support, as well as providing business interruption loans or grants to our Business Partners, but we feel it is only right that we enhance our help given.
“We know that the situation is evolving at speed and we are monitoring the situation closely and will adjust our support according to any advancements. We will come through this together, and when we do, we want our Business Partners to have the finances in place to allow them to recover as quickly as possible.”
St Austell Brewery “puts its people first”
St Austell Brewery has announced its plans for a temporary staffing structure, protecting the employment and incomes of all 2,000 of its employees.
The company has seen its income reduce by 90 percent since the national pub closures as a result of the government lockdown in response to the coronavirus crisis.
With support from Government’s Job Retention Scheme (JRS), the company has furloughed over 75% of its staff across its pub estate, St Austell Brewery and Bath Ales’ Hare Brewery – which it acquired in 2016. Furloughed team members have been put on temporary leave but will remain employed by St Austell Brewery. Through a combination of Government support, and the brewery’s own contributions, all furloughed employees – regardless of their salary – will continue to receive 80 percent of their normal pay.
Kevin Georgel, chief executive, St Austell Brewery says: “As a company, we applaud the support package announced by the Chancellor. It has helped us to secure employment – and an income – for all of our people – as well as hundreds of thousands of others, working in the UK hospitality and brewing industry.
“To have the strongest opportunity to safeguard our business – and employees – for the long-term, we’ve made the difficult decision to temporarily move a number of our team into a period of furlough. We’ll continue to keep this under regular review until normal trading resumes and we can all return to work safely. I’m relieved to say – despite the closure of our pubs and the challenges that still lay ahead – we haven’t had to make a single redundancy across the business.
“With every day that goes by, I become more impressed at the calibre and commitment of our people in these challenging times. I am incredibly proud to lead such a dedicated team and look forward to welcoming all of our teams back when the time is right.”
Wadworth launch virtual pub
Wadworth has launched its own virtual pub, The Henry. Named after founder Henry Wadworth, the independent brewer and pub operator hopes to keep the nation’s beloved pub accessible to people on Facebook despite social distancing and isolation measures which have seen the closure of all the pubs in England.
It will feature regular live music from local musicians streaming online, Wadworth beer tasting, a weekly quiz 10@10 and Q&As with the shire horse team plus weekly store cupboard cooking sessions, bingo, open mic, pub tricks and work-out Wednesday. It will also be a pet-friendly pub with a Wadworth pets feature.
CEO for Wadworth Chris Welham said, “Pubs are at the heart of everything we do and there has never been a greater need to make sure that as a community we come together and are there for each other. With the recent call for pubs to close we wanted to keep pub goers company, keep the conversations flowing and bring a smile to everyone.
“We don’t want customers to forget what coming together feels like in a pub. All the fun things happening at The Henry will help bring a pub community together in a virtual way”.
The Henry can be found at facebook.com/groups/thehenry.
Urgent call to support Cornish fishmongers
The Cornish Fishmonger Rob Wing is urging customers to buy their fish direct from Cornwall fishmongers and freeze it as the big supermarket chains close fresh fish counters and cut product ranges.
“Our fishing industry is facing a catastrophic decline in their supply to UK restaurants and exports to Europe as people are advised to stay at home and borders are closed,” says Wing, “we need to support our fishermen now more than ever to ensure the industry can survive.”
With over 35 years of trading as a fish merchant, Rob Wing and his team can prepare, package and deliver the fish to homes and takeaways nationwide. “All the seafood arrives in cold boxes that are fine to be left on doorsteps if people are self-isolating and is prepared ready to cook or freeze”.
One of the most popular products is the 10 portion Cornish Seafood Selection box which contains the best from that day’s markets.
You can order online at www.thecornishfishmonger.co.uk or on the phone by calling 01726 862489.
Guild of Fine Food calls for shopper support
The organisers of Great Taste, Shop of the Year and the World Cheese Awards, the Guild of Fine Food, are calling for consumers across the country to get behind their local independent retailers and producers during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Dorset-based group has added an online resource to its website to help “delis, grocers, farm shops and cheesemongers adapt to the new economic and social environment”.
As the supply of groceries continues to come under pressure during this period of social distancing, the Guild of Fine Food hopes “that fast action from independents can position them as a big part of the solution and make it easy for consumers to support them during these challenging times.”
The Guild’s dedicated Covid-19 online resource will feature tailored information and advice for the fine food trade as well as inspirational stories for the sector.
John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, explains: “As this unprecedented situation continues to unfold and huge change is forced upon us, we all have the opportunity to make an impact on the communities around us and to help shape what happens next. It saddens us deeply to see the suffering taking place at home and around the world, but our spirits have been lifted by the inspiring initiatives put in place by many of our members, pulling together and adapting their businesses to better serve the local community. This sudden change is already making us think differently about how we interact with the world around us and I hope we can come through the other side of this with a greater respect for our planet, our communities and our food. The challenges are everywhere, but it’s in all our interests to ensure that independent food retail is still here in a year’s time, so I’d encourage everyone to use the hashtag #supportlocal on social media to draw attention to the great things these businesses are doing. We hope that our new online resource will contribute to producers, retailers and consumers coming together for everyone’s benefit, and keep our vibrant independent food sector going strong.”
The Guild of Fine Food’s Covid-19 support resource is open to all and can be accessed at gff.co.uk/support.
South WEST INITIATIVES
Abbotts open pop up cash and carry
Abbotts Events have transformed their showroom into a cash and carry store open to the public and selling essential cleaning products and toilet paper.
Located within Barncoose Industrial Estate, Redruth, TR15 3RQ, occupying Unit 17, they are open from Monday to Friday between the hours of 08:00-17:00.
The company’s website and online catalogue are still fully operational. So, they say, “if you’re self-isolating and find yourself with a little more time on your hands than usual, why not browse our products and start putting together the event to end all events early?!”
Visit the website at abbottseventhire.co.uk. And follow them on social media for the latest updates: www.facebook.com/AbbottsEventHire/, twitter.com/Abbotts_Events.
Callestick Farm
Callestick Farm is offering deliveries of their ice cream and pasties. Orders can be placed on 01872 573126 between the hours of 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Visit www.callestickfarm.co.uk and see @CallestickFarm.
Dartmoor Ice Cream Co.
Dartmoor Ice Cream – “beautifully made in Devon” – can now be delivered to local customers. They are delivering to Tavistock, Yelverton, Princetown, Lydford & Okehampton areas. “Visit our website to choose your flavours then place an order over the phone or by email. Stay safe and treat your family!”
Visit www.dartmooricecream.uk and follow them on Twitter @GloriousCow.
Darts Farm
Darts Farm is offering free delivery to over-70-year-olds and the vulnerable in their local community and free collection for everyone from their car park. They are also selling Send Some Cheer hampers made up of artisan food treats that can be posted as gifts.
Michael Dart, director of Darts Farm comments: “Darts Farm has so many amazing loyal customers that have shopped with us for many years and really are part of our wider Darts Farm family. We wanted to do everything that we could do to help them during this difficult period, so we had a brainstorm with our team and came up with a few new ideas including our ‘Free Home Delivery to the over 70s and the vulnerable’ and our ‘order and collect’ service from our car park. We are also developing our online offering by adding veg boxes and meat boxes, and there will be more to come!”
Customers can email their shopping list to orders@dartsfarm.co.uk or call Darts Farm on 01392 878209. For more details go to www.dartsfarm.co.uk.
Jurassic Coast Farm Shop
Dorset’s Jurassic Coast Farm Shop is now delivering meat, veg, dairy and more direct to customers’ doors. Although the on-site farm shop is closed as they focus on delivery, orders can be collected from the farm.
Delivery is free on orders over £45 and the items are “safely left on your front porch – no contact with the driver required”.
Visit jurassiccoastfarmshop.co.uk and see @JURASSICMEATS for updates.
Quicke’s
Devon-based cheese producer Quicke’s is offering free delivery to NHS staff and all vulnerable groups affected by the current Coronavirus pandemic, for an initial period of 12 weeks.
The producer’s shop, the Quicke’s Cheese Box, based near Crediton, has also teamed up with other businesses in the area to offer an “order and collect” service from Monday 23rd March. Quicke’s cheese and other staples including bread, milk, eggs, beer, cider and wine are on sale. Customers can call the Quicke’s Cheese Box on 01392 851000 or email cheesebox@quickes.co.uk to place their orders, with delivery options also available.
The full range of Quicke’s Clothbound Cheese can be purchased from www.quickes.co.uk, available for next day delivery across the UK, and orders can also be placed by phone on 01392 851000. NHS staff and customers in self-isolation can use the code ‘CHEESE25’ to benefit from free delivery on all orders above £25, from Friday 20th March until Friday 12th June.
Salcombe Brewery
Salcombe Brewery has launched a free doorstep delivery service in response to self-isolation restrictions. Local customers will be able to get bag-in-box draught beer and bottles of their award-winning beer direct to their doors, across all TQ postcodes and specified PL and EX postcodes. The service will sit alongside their online shop which already delivers their bottled beer and cider to consumers nationwide.
Owner of Salcombe Brewery, John Tiner said: “We all face a few tough months ahead, whether in self-isolation or simply reducing travel and social contact in line with Government advice. We will all need a few treats to keep us going and what better to lift the spirits than a delivery of a case of bottled beers or a nine-pint box of your favourite draught Salcombe Brewery ale?”
For further information on Salcombe Brewery Co. visit www.salcombebrewery.com, email contact@salcombebrewery.com or call 01548 854888.
Salcombe Gin
Salcombe Gin has launched a same-day free delivery service to the Salcombe and Kingsbridge area. Available Monday to Saturday for all orders placed by 2.30pm, there is a minimum order quantity of £25. The company say the “service is contactless therefore no physical interaction required to reduce risk of coronavirus propagation.”
Products available to order range from Salcombe Gin’s flagship Start Point gin, the most recently released, Rosé Sainte Marie (RRP £40 per 70cl) or their limited-edition Voyager Series Island Queen gin (RRP £65 per 50cl). Hampers, gift sets, miniatures, tonic water, exclusive glassware and barware sets are also available to purchase.
For further details about the service visit:
https://www.salcombegin.com/salcombe-same-day-service.
Salutation Inn
The restaurant and café in Topsham, Devon is operating a takeaway with soup, hot drinks, and prepared meals through Tom’s Table. Their kitchen is now a hub for cooking daily meals for the elderly, via Estuary League of Friends – their town’s community support group.
Visit salutationtopsham.co.uk for details.
Sharpham Cheese
As well as offering a 10% discount and reduced delivery charges, Sharpham has put together the Essential Devon Cheese Board.
It includes Devon classics; Sharpham Brie, Quickes Mature Cheddar and Ticklemore Devon Blue, plus a ‘grader’s choice’ from both Sharpham and Quickes. Each cheese comes in 300g pieces, individually wrapped and with tasting notes.
Go to www.sharpham.com for more details.
Sheppy’s Cider
One of the oldest cider makers in the world, Sheppy’s are launching a new webshop to make up for the fact you can’t order their drinks in a pub at the moment. You can instead enjoy up to ten of their ciders at home, including flavours such as Cider with Raspberry, Cider with Elderflower and the 200 Special Edition.
Each flavour comes in a case of 12 or customers can opt for a Mixed Apple Cider and Mixed Fruit Selection and enjoy a variety of ciders with prices starting at £29.55.
Sheppy’s Cider online shop is at www.sheppyscider.com/cider-store.
FOOD & DRINK NEWS
Independent Coffee Box
This monthly coffee subscription box delivers speciality coffee to your door and supports the UK’s small independent coffee roasteries at the same time.
Each month, they source beans from independent coffee roasters across the UK and curate a collection of two, three or four-coffee bag boxes to send to subscribers.
With cafés and coffee shops closed, this gives the small-scale roasteries supplying the independent sector another route to consumers who can enjoy barista-style coffee at home.
Jo Rees of Indy Coffee Box said: ‘We launched Indy Coffee Box last summer and it’s steadily grown, thanks to switched-on coffee lovers who enjoy getting really good coffee delivered to their door each month. Now, the demand is really flourishing as people look to find a new normal. If they can’t feed their coffee habit in the usual way, at least they can make good coffee at home.’
Subscriptions start at just £18.99 per month and a one-off gift box is £20. Visit www.indycoffeebox.co.uk.
New Kings Coffee
Bristol-based New Kings Coffee is selling their coffee bags online with free shipping for orders over £15. The company offers a diverse range of high-quality fair-trade organic single-origin coffees in biodegradable bags for “fans of freshly brewed coffee” who “don’t want to add to the plastic problem with coffee machine capsules or.. tire of tidying up the grounds”.
Visit www.newkingscoffee.co.uk for more details.
Shanty Spirit
Shanty Spirit Seaweed Vodka is available to buy online for the public and trade. It features five hand-foraged British seaweeds “giving an umami base, further enhanced by Dorset wasabi, galangal, yuzu, bergamot and sea buckthorn in a 100% organic spirit.”
The producers say “It works well neat on the rocks as a sipping vodka as a Shanty on the Rocks, but also stands up well and adds new dimensions to classic serves such as a Shanty Mule, a Shanty Mary or a Shantini. It also pairs with seafood beautifully.”
Trade enquiries should go to orders@shantyspirit.com. Or visit www.shantyspirit.com.