Perhaps not strictly in full lockdown but they have expanded rapidly (and in my opinion, recklessly) before and during the pandemic, including opening a new Steakhouse venue in London in December 2020, the old French place in Boro in November 2020, Acklam Hall in September 2020, a Tomahawk chicken place in Yarm in May 2020, a steak house in Beverley also in May 2020. As the pandemic was unfolding, they opened a Rio steakhouse in Jesmond, and the York Tomahawk was agreed in February 2020. The company owner was also bragging on his Facebook on the 7th February 2021 about how Xscape Castleford will be the third new venue opened since November 2020, and that’s just for the Tomahawk chicken takeaway side venture.
So all this about increased overheads and business expenses on their part are due to a very risky expansion strategy, and completely avoidable. Its a gamble that didn’t pay off for them, and their (likely minimum wage) waiting staff absolutely should not be expected to shoulder responsibility for the stupidity of their bosses. Of course, not many companies will have had “survive a pandemic” in their business model, but I also didn’t see too many other hospitality chains with “expanding rapidly over the course of a global pandemic“ in their business models either. Most seemed to do the sensible thing and reduce their ongoing costs as much as possible to limit the impacts in a time of severe uncertainty.
I wonder if the company director could sell his Ferrari 488 weekend car to solve his little cash flow issue rather than threaten his wait staff with redundancy for not illegally loaning the company their wages