Cork and Covid: Resilience and creativity see businesses survive the pandemic

As Cork and the country look back on this weekend of remembrance, Breda Graham at how the Covid pandemic affected local businesses and the hope in the air as owners and staff prepare for summer.

The business community in Cork and across the country was hugely affected when Covid-19 landed on our shores in March 2020. Lockdowns saw doors closing and shutters coming down on many businesses in both urban and rural areas of the county, with many questioning what the future of their business looked like under such uncertain circumstances.

As time went on, businesses had to adapt to new rules in-store such as social distancing and mask-wearing, and those that moved online had to adapt to a new way of interacting with their customers.

Now that the light can be finally seen at the end of the tunnel, businesses are looking forward to a return to normality this summer.

One of the people who was at the centre of supporting businesses since taking his place as president of the Cork Business Association (CBA) in February 2020 was Eoin O’Sullivan of M&P O’Sullivan Ltd.

Reflecting on the past two years, Mr O’Sullivan said if he had known then what he knows now, he wouldn’t have done anything differently.

“With Covid, and I’m speaking with my business hat on as well as the CBA hat on, you had to react quickly and that’s what small businesses do really well, is they react quickly — and when we had curve balls thrown at us, whether it was social distancing, lockdowns, reducing capacity, you had to do the best with what you had,” he says.

“I saw so many people change their business models overnight going from a sit-down restaurant to a takeaway, and a retail business going from walk-in to online, and it was really reactive.

Looking back, I think we did the best with what we had, and we have come out the other side, thankfully.

Mr O’Sullivan saw himself thrown into the deep end with a shift to working online which he said was “very different” to what his predecessors would have done.

He said that focusing on getting relevant supports for members was a “key part” of his brief for two years and that making sure businesses were receiving relevant information regarding restrictions and guidelines was important because it was “changing by the hour”. 

Mr O’Sullivan commended businesses on their resilience over the past two years and their ability to come together, support each other, and make a real difference to the city centre and its future.

“I think Covid has changed the business environment forever,” he says. 

“We definitely bucked the trend nationally when it came to utilising the space we had. The on-street dining took off, and I think Cork was a place where people wouldn’t go on a sunny day, people would travel to Kinsale or West Cork or East Cork, but now it’s a destination. 

"People are coming into the city and spending weekends here, so that was a really good news story.” 

Joan Lucey, proprietor of the popular bookstore and arts and crafts store Vibes and Scribes, was a business owner who took the initiative in protecting both her staff and customers by asking people to wear face coverings before they became mandatory.

While the move was at the time met with some criticism online, Ms Lucey said the decision was made to maintain a safe environment for her customers and staff by asking customers to take a mask and to donate to the Sexual Violence Centre if they so wished.

To this day, she said that the safety of her staff and those visiting her stores is paramount, and when restrictions related to mandatory mask-wearing were recently lifted, she gave her staff the option of whether or not to continue wearing them and it was decided that they would continue to wear them.

She said that staff are now enjoying coming to work, as at the beginning of the pandemic they were very nervous and fearful of the virus. She said that her staff eventually got into “a rhythm” while working from the five-storey crafts shop — which was turned into a five-storey warehouse throughout lockdowns when the business moved online.

“Fortunately, we were able to keep everybody on,” she says.

We didn’t have to let anybody go, and we had enough work for everybody — Online did very well for us.

“We had a good foundation built, but it probably brought us forward about five years in development, knowledge and sales and just even getting new customers and so it fast-tracked the whole online sales side of things. I and it was challenging but at least we felt.

“Cork has a tradition of supporting local and family-owned businesses. I’ve found from the day I started here that I have had fantastic local support, and going online is still seen as supporting local.”

She said that while the last two years have been “hard work” and was “a very challenging time”, that she now looks forward to people being “less stressed and more relaxed” and that people can now shop for their own enjoyment again.

Echoing Ms Lucey’s comments, Audrey Lehane of Azure Jewellery in the city, said she is looking forward to brighter days after what was “a surreal” time.

The business, which specialises in handmade hair accessories and jewellery, is largely wedding-focused, which Ms Lehane said was “a huge concern”, so she utilised the time during the first lockdown with one of her team members Clodagh to develop a new website on Shopify.

“Needless to say the decline of weddings had a huge impact”, but she added that Covid-19 also benefited the business as she now has a successful website which is “a great addition to the business going forward”. 

The pandemic also forced her to upskill to understand new platforms and using tools such as Google and Facebook ads.

Similarly, Eddie Mullins of Fitzgerald Menswear, which would also have a high proportion of wedding clientele, said he is enjoying the return to pre-pandemic levels with people planning weddings, communions, confirmations, special events, and holidays.

People are getting out and visiting the city in large numbers again, especially since the legal requirement for mask-wearing in stores was dropped.

“The days are getting longer and warmer, new colourful collections are arriving daily, and there is a palpable sense of relief and a renewed appreciation of the many unique shops, cafes, and restaurants in our wonderful city which we all share.” 

He said that his enduring memory of the pandemic was how life changed utterly in such a short period of time and the subsequent quietness that descended upon the city.

After 10 months of closure in total, he said that Government supports played a huge part in assisting businesses, but also peoples’ good nature which he said “came to the fore even in our darkest days”.

“I found people that visited our store once we reopened were compliant regarding mask-wearing and social distancing, while also being understanding and kind,” he said.

A business owner who was in the thick of the fight for supports during the pandemic was Cork chairman of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland, Michael O’Donovan of the Castle Inn, who recalled first closing the doors on St Patrick’s weekend in 2020.

“I’ll always remember 10.30pm on a Saturday night which would have been the first big weekend of the year, it was the first week of Cheltenham, we were looking at Ireland and England playing on the Saturday night, we were rolling into the Tuesday of Paddy’s Day and all the orders had been put in for that week, as it would have been perceived as a big week for the industry.

People were frightened at that time. The discussion in the bar was what’s going to happen and we were asked to social distance, but nobody knew what that was then — it was a new concept.

“We shut the doors in the bar that night, and on Sunday then came the announcement that pubs would close across the country.” 

He said that as things unfolded and Covid numbers were reported, people understood why it happened, but that when the time came to reopening some of society, he feels the traditional pub was forgotten about at a time when members had “constant worries, such as the fear for their staff, their premises and the financial implications”.

While he welcomed the Government supports received throughout the pandemic, he said that it was “unfair to tarnish all the pubs and try to divide the pubs with the food requirement” which he said “created a divide”.

“Our understanding is there has been no scientific or medical evidence ever produced to show that it was safer in a food environment and a non-food, so our industry has to be treated on equal footing,” he said.

After that came the deferral of reopening in August which he said saw staff become “disillusioned with the industry”.

“It was at that point that a lot of staff started to leave our industry and look elsewhere, and throughout the pandemic — and still to this day — we’re still fighting a very hard fight to try and regain some of our staff, and we’ll probably never regain some staff, and some very talented members and crucial members of our industry left the trade,” he said.

Jeff Safar Hamidi, the owner of Koto restaurant on Carey’s Lane, said he remembers the weekend before the St Patrick’s Day parade in 2020 when Covid hit and “demand suddenly slumped”.

“I don’t think any of us could have imagined what the next two years had in store for us,” he says. 

“Masks, social distancing, antigen tests, contact tracing, queuing for supermarkets, staying 5km from our homes, and of course the closure of hospitality.

“In the space of a weekend, we closed. The fridges were emptied, staff were sent home, and we brought down the shutters. ‘We’ll be back in two weeks’ was what we told ourselves. We were wrong.

“After a month or so, Koto reopened as a takeaway. We had our whole menu available, including takeaway cocktails, and we also did an extra Persian-themed pop-up for reheating at home. 

"While we were glad to be open as a takeaway, we really missed having our customers dine in with us — it was the aspect of hospitality that we and our customers missed the most. 

"Many of our customers used Deliveroo and click-and-collect to keep ordering and enjoying our food at home, and we are very grateful to them for their continued support.

The Government’s supports were very welcome and ensured the survival and growth of many businesses throughout the pandemic.

"On top of the pandemic, the PUP gave rise to a staffing shortage in our industry. Perhaps if the PUP was administered by employers, it would have been different.

“With each opening and closing, lockdowns and restrictions, there were new challenges and obstacles. Who would have ever thought we, as restaurateurs, would be checking people’s Covid passes to permit them entry to dine in, or police our customers to wear masks? We are certainly glad that is gone.” 

He said that it is “great” to be in a position where the yellow Covid-19 signs have come down and where they can again greet customers with a smile and open arms.

“Already this year we have had many tourists visit Cork, and it’s refreshing to have them back. It brings a great energy and buzz back to the city. We’re looking forward to St Patrick’s weekend, and it’ll be summer before we know it.”