When did you realise that your business was in trouble and how did you react?

Written by: James Wong (centre) - MD Chung Ying Restaurant Group
 

We were experiencing lower turnover from January and had a particularly bad Chinese New Year. Each week, the business was getting worse and worse as the virus was spreading across the world. By March, our Chinatown branch lost around 90% of our Chinese and 60% of our non-Chinese trade. Colmore Row was so quiet, we closed prior to lockdown in early March.

 
What immediate steps did you take?
Full time staff were put into part time hours by March as they were worried about the virus. Some didn't want to go to work, which was understandable. During lock down, we kept our Chinatown restaurant open by doing takeaways with a 15 mile
delivery radius.
 
How did you decide who to furlough and who not to – did this cause problems?
Furlough was easy as most of the staff didn't want to work. We had a couple of staff meetings to determine who wanted to carry on working. Some had families overseas and were...