Mark and Elaine Wrigley took ownership of the Atlas Bar in central Manchester in 2012, and as a family run business, the venue has seen massive changes and challenges across the hospitality sector over recent years. From Covid, to numerous iterations of Chancellors, the iconic gin bar has weathered hardships with a stoicism typical of many small independent hospitality businesses. Mark and Elaine shared with us the current hardships that the present government have presented on the still struggling hospitality sector: “In 2012, Atlas was a failed business when we took it over, and we’ve worked extremely hard to build it into what it is today. Our four children have all worked here, and alongside our core team, we’ve mainly recruited students, into their first jobs, supporting their studies, and helping to build their life skills. Our alumni is well in excess of 150.
“We’ve always paid Real Living Wage, never discriminated by age, and invested in team training. We also encourage our team to be involved in decisions to improve how we operate the bar. Covid was our most difficult time and it’s been a long ‘slog’ to get back to pre-Covid levels. Cost of living challenges, energy hikes, and other factors have all taken their toll.
“Before the General Election the hospitality sector was lobbying, but failing to gain support from the Government. The Tories were resigned to defeat and uninterested. Labour seemed willing and eager to support. So this gave us some hope. However, after the election, the support has simply not happened, and Rachel Reeves’ budget was nothing but a hammer blow to us all.
“It feels like the burdon of the ‘Black Hole’ so often described by the new government, has been pushed firmly onto small businesses and the hospitality sector in particular. It has been truly shocking. Apparently we aren’t working people in Labour’s eyes?!
“Wage costs in a typical food led pub are c.35% of turnover, unlike say Supermarkets at c.10%, and proportionally the Employers National Insurance is a far bigger hit. Lowering the entry threshold has also brought all our team members into the equation, which previously they weren’t.
“The Government agrees that the current Business Rates scheme is unfair and needs reforming, but they refuse to maintain the support until it’s resolved next year. This means we have another £50K+ to find. These things alone will wipe out all likely profits for us this year, and this is before we factor in energy costs and ingredient price rises.
“We are now forced to make tough decisions to survive and keep our team in employment. We have reduced staffing hours by more than 15%, cancelled planned improvements, cancelled trading hours expansion – this will cost 3-4 full time roles for us. We have cancelled all marketing expenditure, reduced training investment… and of course we’ve needed to increase prices.
“The government says they are supporting small businesses. This is disingenuous and simply not true. We are carrying more of the burden than the large on-line tech companies and traders. It’s simply not right. Rachel Reeves’ budget is suffocating the economy, and closures and countless job losses are inevitable.
“We have written to our local MP, where we live, Lisa Nandy, on numerous occasions, asking for support, and not received one response, which is simply unacceptable, and disgraceful. We wrote to Kier Starmer, complaining that we never get a response from Lisa Nandy, and guess what… No response!
“Fortunately, Lucy Powell, the Manchester Central MP, and Leader of the House, is interested, and is arranging a time to meet with us, soon. Small family businesses are being hit from all sides. Why aren’t the large on-line and tech businesses, being asked to pay more, and help to shoulder the burden?
“We all want better services, but the Government needs to cut their cloth accordingly too, before it’s too late!”
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