Summer of 2020 has seen a patio season like no other.
Restaurateurs across Canada moved quickly early in the season to create or expand outdoor dining sections, giving themselves more physically distanced capacity, and COVID-cautious customers the confidence to dine out in fresh air.
But as the lazy, hazy days of summer draw to a close, fear of failure is surging.
“My wife and I both operate the business, and we aren’t really sleeping too well,” said Matthew Senecal-Junkeer, owner of The Birds & The Beets in Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood. The restaurant typically only has four to six outdoor seats, but this year the city allowed the couple to transform four parking spaces into a 50-seat patio.
“We were hitting capacity, we had every table virtually filled in our restaurant,” said Senecal-Junkeer. “We just had a little preview of what winter could be like when we had a three-day rainy streak in Vancouver, and it meant about a 42 per cent decline from what our sales were the week prior.”
Survival at stake
In Windsor, Ont., John McKibbon is also worried.
“I’d be lying if I said we don’t have anxiety going into the fall and winter,” said McKibbon, who co-owns the Sandbar Waterfront Grill as well as John Max Sports & Wings.
“We’ve had people come to the restaurant wanting to sit outside, and when we’ve been full outside and only had tables indoors, some of those customers have decided not to dine with us that day,” he said.
McKibbon and his partners transformed an outdoor volleyball court at one of their two sports bars into a physically distanced patio on the sand.
A volleyball court at John Max Sports & Wings in Windsor has been converted for patio dining. (Submitted by John McKibbon)
“We think the loss of the patios will have a pretty dramatic effect on our sales,” he said. “There are different levels of anxiety with everyone.”
Canada’s food service sector typically employs 1.2 million people, and prior to the pandemic, served 22 million meals a day across the country, according to industry data.
Statistics Canada recently released the results of a May survey on business conditions. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce crunched the numbers with a focus on restaurant operators, and concluded that 60 percent of participants don’t expect to survive more than three months with the current physical distance restrictions in place.
Already a significant number of restaurants across Canada have closed permanently.
Chamber president and CEO Perrin Beatty urged Canadians to take political action to encourage further financial support of the industry. “Everyone also needs to remind their elected representatives of the importance of our restaurants in our lives,” said Beatty in a press release.
‘We’re not health experts’
The Chamber has teamed up with 60 of the best-known restaurant brands in Canada, along with other hospitality organizations, to launch a campaign called Our Restaurants. It’s also produced an ad promoting the industry on social media platforms.
But the industry’s own association, Restaurants Canada, is hesitant to push too hard to relax seating requirements, especially as a second wave of the virus begins to build.
“We’re not health experts,” said Mark von Schellwitz, Restaurant Canada’s vice-president for western Canada. “But a number of members have approached us to point out that the World Health Organization guidelines for physical distancing is one meter, not two meters. Ifwe had a one meter distance instead of two that obviously would increase our capacity, and that would be really helpful.”
Von Schellwitz is part of a hospitality industry group that is lobbying the federal government to launch a national campaign to boost consumer confidence in dining out. He pointed to a program in the United Kingdom called “Eat Out to Help Out,” where dine-in customers could receive a 50 per cent discount on their meals throughout the month of August, up to £10 (about $17) per person.
The program ended up costing the government more than expected, as millions of Britons jumped at the incentive, running up a tab of £522 million ($900 million).
Matthew Senecal-Junkeer of The Birds & The Beets restaurant in Vancouver. (Submitted by Matthew Senecal-Junkeer)
But in Vancouver, Matthew Senecal-Junkeer is counting on one thing: his landlord.
“They are asking for full rent now,” he said. “And we’ve had the wage subsidy and we had the patio, so we were able and willing to pay it. But I indicated to them yesterday that look, come October, it’s not I’m saying I don’t want to pay — it’s just there simply is no cash in the bank.”
Calls for more support
The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy has helped many restaurateurs, and has been extended until December, but the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program expired at the end of August.
Based in Charlottetown, PEI, Kevin and Kathy Murphy own 16 food and beverage operations in three Atlantic provinces, along with the Prince Edward Island Brewing Company. Patios have always been a big part of their business, but they’ve already closed down their Fishbones Oyster Bar & Seafood Grill early for the season, and are thinking hard about others.
During the summer of 2019, the patio at Sims Corner Steakhouse & Oyster Bar was bustling. This summer the pandemic has meant fewer paying customers. (Murphy Hospitality Group)
“Do we need three restaurants in one street?” asked Murphy. “So we’re thinking, do we close one in October or November? And just go with the other two? We’re also looking at days of the week. Do we go to five days a week versus seven days a week?”
PEI has enacted some of Canada’s strictest policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing restaurants a maximum of 50 patrons at any time, regardless of a venue’s size.
Murphy and other tourism entrepreneurs in the area have banded together to lobby the government for further financial support.
“You do what you have to do to survive and put plans in place to get there,” says Murphy, noting that the industry has always been characterized by resourcefulness and creativity. But he also has a warning for restaurant lovers across the country, about how entrepreneurs have to approach business: “You will not stay open if you’re not making money.”
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
