Jean Castex confirmed it this Thursday, January 7, putting an end to a false suspense. Bars and restaurants will not reopen before, “at least mid-February,” the Prime Minister said. Anything but a surprise for professionals from Allier including Jean-Pierre Bujard, president of Umih, who was expecting this bad news.
What is the state of mind of the profession when the reopening of bars and restaurants has been postponed at least to mid-February?
Jean-Pierre Bujard: People are annoyed and resigned. Of course, morale is not good in such a context. We don’t live. We’re stuck. All you ask is to be able to reopen and rework. Afterwards, measures are put in place to protect us. We will say that businesses are more or less protected. The small ones are, the medium ones are roughly, but for the big ones, it is a little more complicated.
Do you understand that the closure of your establishments will be extended?
We understand, yes, because the evil is still there and we must succeed in eradicating it, hopefully as soon as possible. What we do not find normal are these differences in regulations.
It is still not our fault that the Covid-19 is still developing since we are all closed
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So maybe the rules should be tightened in other industries. I can tell you that the regulations that were applied in our establishments were stricter than those of supermarkets today. Our only problem is that a customer has to put on his mask to eat or drink.
The restaurateurs of Puy-de-Dôme in the unknown after the announcements of Jean Castex
The hardest part is not having a specific deadline?
Yes of course. Even if we can understand that the government does not know it either. But indeed, it is very complicated to live. And not just for us. I am also thinking of our suppliers who have very little help and who do not have more customers since we are closed. It’s a whole industry that is unbalanced.
To come back to these aid of 10,000 euros or 20% of turnover, are they sufficient to cope with the current situation?
In the month of November, it was relatively simple. It was 10,000 euros for everyone from the moment we were concerned by an administrative closure. For some, this help was more than sufficient, but for those with high incompressible loads, it is more complicated. For a company like mine, for example, I have 19,000 euros in incompressible charges. For December, we are still waiting. We still do not have the means to fill in aid requests online
. It changes every day and it’s more and more complicated to fill out the forms …
In the Allier, are there already restaurants and bars that know they won’t be able to reopen?
Of course. There are already bars and restaurants, especially in Montluçon, which have or will file for bankruptcy.
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There will inevitably be establishments that will not reopen. It will even affect more establishments than we imagine. We are talking about a third of establishments and this figure will, I think, be largely reached.
Because after this period, there will still be the problem of restarting, because it will be necessary to repay this aid over four years with interest that we do not yet know. And it will also be necessary to reimburse anything that may have been postponed such as rent or tax. This period will be dramatic.
Have you been able to assess the loss of turnover for the profession in the department?
From March 15, 2020 or March 15, 2021 because we assume that we will not be reopened, we will have worked half of June, then in July, August, September and October. And still two thirds of the activity. At best, we will achieve 30% of normal turnover.
Shops authorized to open on the four Sundays of the winter sales period in the Allier
There is also a fear for employment and a loss of know-how?
It’s obvious. Already, in normal times, the profession has difficulty finding employees. For a year, the young people will not have been trained. The young people who will go out with a CAP in June, they will have three to four months of practice during the year. It is heartbreaking.
Take-away sales have grown, with real success for holiday meals. Did this limit the breakage?
Yes, but overall it’s still a very small activity compared to the rest. Even the one who worked very, very well only made 15% of his turnover for the month of December. It is not in two or three days of activity that we can fill three months of closure. After the take-out sale remains a small activity which only allows a few establishments to save the furniture. It’s still DIY for us. It’s impossible to make a business profitable with that, if not fast food restaurants even if they make less turnover than normal.
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Catering is not just about food. It’s a framework, a service, everything that goes with it. It is a set. We don’t just sell the food part.
What about the hotel industry?
We do 70% less activity and many have even closed in January-February because it is not profitable.
– Jean Castex announced yesterday that the forms would be posted on January 15 on the site impots.gouv.
Montluçon
03100
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