Press Release
The uncertainty and late announcement of restrictions for Dublin has caused enormous disruption for cafes and coffee shop owners.
Retail Excellence represents over 100 companies in the café and coffee shop sector in the Dublin area which are impacted by the closure of indoor dinning.
Businesses cannot be given less than 24hrs to react to potential closure notice from Government. The uncertainty around this announcement will result in:
- Cafes and coffee shops forced to move to a takeaway service only with a big hit to turnover
- A huge amount of food bought in for the weekend, will go to waste as a result of the late notice and uncertainty caused by this announcement.
- Staff members will be moved back to the PUP payment and jobs will be threatened in the long run.
Retail Excellence has called on Revenue to accelerate the Employment Wage Subsidy Payments to back to businesses within days rather than the current situation where they could be waiting up to six weeks.
This will intensify the ongoing unrest between landlords and tenants over unpaid rent for periods of closure dating back to the first lockdown. Retail Excellence has called for an accelerated arbitration process that is independent of both parties.
There is no evidence to suggest that large outbreaks of the virus are linked to restaurants, cafes or coffee shops.
Editors Notes:
About Retail Excellence
Established in 1995, Retail Excellence is owned by the members, for the members. We are an organisation which invests in innovative and exciting learning, market intelligence, human resources services, Government representation and member networking initiatives. Retail Excellence has over 2,200 leading retail company members with over 13,000 stores in Ireland. Our members are the most progressive and innovative retailers. Retail Excellence is by far the largest retail industry body in Ireland.