5. Planning for the future restart of the business - but not business as usual?
This section provides video diaries and information sources on the continuing pandemic impact for the months of July 2020 through to December 2020.
Developments from July to December 2020
This section provides video diaries and information sources on the continuing pandemic impact for the months of July 2020 through to December 2020.
The 104 days of closure from March to the beginning of July 2020 were covered in section 3 of this Covid section and information for that time-period was structured around four main areas:
3.a Business operations and survival
3.d Key announcements/developments and contextual information from UK and Scottish Government
Those four areas enable exploration of these themes in terms of how the business survived during the lockdown.
This section 5 charts the continuing impact of the pandemic after the 3.5 months of lockdown and still covers these four areas above, but this section 5 is structured around each month between the phased re-opening of the business (from 3rd July 2020 onwards) and the end of the calendar year 2020.
Below is a summary of what is covered in section 5 in each month and below that there is an interactive timeline charting the main developments from July to December 2020.
You can click on the months along the top of each section to jump to read what was happening in that month and to watch the video diaries.
Here is a summary of what happened in each month, July to December 2020:
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• The Village Shop, St Mocha Coffee Shop and The Station Coffee Shop opened up again on 3rd July 2020 (after 104 days of closure)
• On 10th July the beer garden opened for take-away food and drinks;
• and on 15th July 2020 the Oak Tree Inn reopened for accommodation, drinks and food;
• The Government announced a scheme for August to help hospitality businesses, the “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme (15/7).
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• The Governments “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme begins (3/8);
• Aberdeen city is put into local lockdown with all bars, restaurants and cafes closing (5/8);
• 4 x video diaries with Sandy Fraser reflecting on the three weeks since fully re-opening (6/8);
• 1 x video diary filmed at the Oak Tree Inn with Sandy Fraser commenting on business re-opening (10/8);
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• Reports that the economy continues to recover (11/9);
• Many hospitality and tourism businesses fearful for their survival “another lockdown would be disastrous” (18/9);
• 2 x video diaries with Sandy Fraser reflecting on the past six weeks of business since the last video diaries were filmed (20/9);
• New restrictions introduced in Scotland with bars having to close at 10pm and a “rule of 6” meaning that no more than six people from two
households can now meet (22/9);
• VAT reduction from 20% to 5% extended to end of March 2021 (24/9);
• Report that the “pandemic is accelerating in Scotland” (26/9);
• Disney to cut 28,000 jobs in the US (30/9).
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• First time that more than 10,000 Covid cases reported in 24 hours (4/10);
• Cineworld (world’s second largest cinema operator) announces closure of all cinemas at least until spring 2021 (4/10);
• Further restrictions are seen across Europe with bars and restaurants being closed (5/10);
• Talk of “circuit breaker” restrictions in Scotland (5/10);
• New restrictions announced in Scotland meaning the closure again of the Oak Tree Inn (7/10);
• 2 x video diaries with Sandy Fraser on the “devastating” impact of the new measures (8/10);
• The new restrictions come into force in Scotland for 16 days (9/10).
• The new St Mocha drive thru opens at Carbeth (8/10);
• The new restrictions come into force in Scotland for 16 days (9/10);
• Talk about new systems of restrictions including new three tier restrictions system and possible national lockdown (11/10);
• Mitchells and Butlers (with 44,000 employees and 1,700 pubs) announces possible redundancies (12/10);
• New three tier lockdown system announced for England (12/10);
• Pubs, restaurants and cafes closed for 4 weeks in Northern Ireland, except for take-away and deliveries; and hospitality businesses also ordered
to close in the Netherlands (14/10);
• Wales announces a national lockdown for 17 days (19/10);
• 2 x video diaries with Sandy Fraser on the impact of the Scottish 16 day close-down (19/10);
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