I was interviewed by Sandra O Connell for an article she wrote in the Sunday Times yesterday about the challenges facing small independent restaurants. We were fortunate to get a photo in for the article, and every piece of exposure helps. However, I wish it wasn't because of this concerning topic. Costs are becoming prohibitive for many of these family-run independent restaurants, they don't have the economies of scale that the big chains have, and unfortunately, we are going to see a lot more closures in the coming months. This is worrying for us too as many of these small guys are our friends and our customers.
We will of course keep fighting, 2024 will be a year where we try to develop our retail sales more here in Ireland and begin to look at how we can develop export sales. So lovely customers keep nagging those shops and pulling the Velvet Cloud pots out to the front and you will be doing your part in the David vs Goliath campaign😜 You can also read why it is so challenging for small businesses in retail in this blog post