The Merrion Hotel on Llandudno seafront for the first time in 70 years was forced to lock the doors, right in the middle of its usually busy season – it wasn’t just financially worrying, but personally heart-breaking for a family business run by Paul Bream and his brother.
“The business has been in my family since 1949 – for four generations,” says Bream.
“This is more than bricks and mortar to us, this is who we are. It’s part of our family and part of our identity so to say that it’s important to us wouldn’t even get close. We have heritage here, long standing relationships with guests who have been coming for years. We’re part of their lives, they’re part of ours.”
June would usually be the heart of the season for The Merrion Hotel, says Bream, The 64-bedroom hotel closed its doors on March 21 and he and his brother Gareth, who run it together, still don’t know when they will be able to welcome people back. “Normally we would only close for January because there is a post-Christmas and New Year hiatus when people just don’t go away. But from the beginning of February we’re open, February and March is a kind of shoulder season for us, then we get to the end of March when really our summer season begins and runs all the way through to October when we have another shoulder season before Christmas.
“At the moment we would be in the heart of our season. This is the first time in 70 years that this kind of thing has ever happened and to be closed as we are through the season is bizarre.”
With 47 staff on the books and bills to pay on the 120-year-old building, having no guests causes a huge problem. But a package of support from the UK government has proved invaluable in helping the business weather such a difficult time. After a “deeply unsettling” period of time from mid-February to when they closed on 21 March, announcements of a raft of measures to support businesses allowed the family to “breathe a sigh of relief”, says Bream. “We kept our commitment to staff in the hope that something would come along, but it was deeply unsettling because we just didn’t know what was going to happen. And then the UK Government announced the furlough scheme and we just breathed a sigh of relief. We could hunker down for a bit.”
Alongside the furlough scheme, which has allowed the hotel to furlough all 47 staff without making any redundant, they have also benefited from the decision to halt business rates, via a business rate relief provided by the Welsh Government. On top of that, the UK Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which provides businesses with loans of up to £5m, with no interest due for 12 months, has allowed Bream and his brother to continue paying their bills to ensure they are ready to start trading again as soon as they’re allowed to. “Obviously with a building this size – we’re a 120-year-old building – the standing costs don’t stop simply because we lock the front door. We have ongoing costs, which we can’t get away from. For example, our broadband alone costs about £500 a month. So we wanted to make sure that we had enough liquidity in the business for however long this lasts and not have any issues with our suppliers and be ready to hit the ground running when lockdown is lifted.”
The CBILS loan has played a part in ensuring Bream can maintain confidence when it comes to his suppliers and keeping the bills paid. “Business for me is all about relationships, both from the customer side and the supplier side. It’s very, very important to us that our suppliers have confidence in us because it’s a two-way street – we have to work with them and trust them and vice versa. For them to know that we are in a secure place going forward hopefully allows them to run their business and be in a position ready to supply us as and when we reopen.”
For Bream, the speed with which his bank ensured he could get the loan, also helped in alleviating some of the worry at an incredibly stressful time. “The CBILS loan was offered at the beginning of this and we weren’t sure whether the scheme would be withdrawn or reduced or changed so we took the loan while it was on offer – whether we used it or not was another thing.
“Barclays have been superb with us, we are very fortunate to have a great relationship with our manager. They understand our business and have gone to great lengths to help us. They are another supplier so it’s important for us.
We have been with them for probably about 50 years. It’s important for us that they understand us and we can confidently do business with them. They were as quick as they could be with the difficulties that they faced – obviously they were faced with a tsunami of applications.”
With a package of support keeping the business afloat, Bream is cautiously optimistic about the future, though admits there are still challenges ahead. “We have a wonderful client base, we have built up relationships with people over the years. I constantly get phone calls from guests asking when they can come back. All that is really heartening because once we can get the message out that we’re back in business I feel fairly confident that there will be a bounce back and we can trade again.
“The business has been in my family since 1949 – for four generations,” says Bream. “This is more than bricks and mortar to us, this is who we are. It’s part of our family and part of our identity so to say that it’s important to us wouldn’t even get close. We have heritage here, long standing relationships with guests who have been coming for years. We’re part of their lives, they’re part of ours.”
June would usually be the heart of the season for The Merrion Hotel, says Bream, The 64-bedroom hotel closed its doors on March 21 and he and his brother Gareth, who run it together, still don’t know when they will be able to welcome people back. “Normally we would only close for January because there is a post-Christmas and New Year hiatus when people just don’t go away. But from the beginning of February we’re open, February and March is a kind of shoulder season for us, then we get to the end of March when really our summer season begins and runs all the way through to October when we have another shoulder season before Christmas.
“At the moment we would be in the heart of our season. This is the first time in 70 years that this kind of thing has ever happened and to be closed as we are through the season is bizarre.”
With 47 staff on the books and bills to pay on the 120-year-old building, having no guests causes a huge problem. But a package of support from the UK government has proved invaluable in helping the business weather such a difficult time. After a “deeply unsettling” period of time from mid-February to when they closed on 21 March, announcements of a raft of measures to support businesses allowed the family to “breathe a sigh of relief”, says Bream. “We kept our commitment to staff in the hope that something would come along, but it was deeply unsettling because we just didn’t know what was going to happen. And then the UK Government announced the furlough scheme and we just breathed a sigh of relief. We could hunker down for a bit.”
Alongside the furlough scheme, which has allowed the hotel to furlough all 47 staff without making any redundant, they have also benefited from the decision to halt business rates, via a business rate relief provided by the Welsh Government. On top of that, the UK Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which provides businesses with loans of up to £5m, with no interest due for 12 months, has allowed Bream and his brother to continue paying their bills to ensure they are ready to start trading again as soon as they’re allowed to. “Obviously with a building this size – we’re a 120-year-old building – the standing costs don’t stop simply because we lock the front door. We have ongoing costs, which we can’t get away from. For example, our broadband alone costs about £500 a month. So we wanted to make sure that we had enough liquidity in the business for however long this lasts and not have any issues with our suppliers and be ready to hit the ground running when lockdown is lifted.”
The CBILS loan has played a part in ensuring Bream can maintain confidence when it comes to his suppliers and keeping the bills paid. “Business for me is all about relationships, both from the customer side and the supplier side. It’s very, very important to us that our suppliers have confidence in us because it’s a two-way street – we have to work with them and trust them and vice versa. For them to know that we are in a secure place going forward hopefully allows them to run their business and be in a position ready to supply us as and when we reopen.”
For Bream, the speed with which his bank ensured he could get the loan, also helped in alleviating some of the worry at an incredibly stressful time. “The CBILS loan was offered at the beginning of this and we weren’t sure whether the scheme would be withdrawn or reduced or changed so we took the loan while it was on offer – whether we used it or not was another thing.
“Barclays have been superb with us, we are very fortunate to have a great relationship with our manager. They understand our business and have gone to great lengths to help us. They are another supplier so it’s important for us.
We have been with them for probably about 50 years. It’s important for us that they understand us and we can confidently do business with them. They were as quick as they could be with the difficulties that they faced – obviously they were faced with a tsunami of applications.”
With a package of support keeping the business afloat, Bream is cautiously optimistic about the future, though admits there are still challenges ahead. “We have a wonderful client base, we have built up relationships with people over the years. I constantly get phone calls from guests asking when they can come back. All that is really heartening because once we can get the message out that we’re back in business I feel fairly confident that there will be a bounce back and we can trade again.
“Maybe the stay caution will be the thing for a couple of years, which would be great, but we have still got to present a safe and reassuring image to customers who are coming away and we want to be in a position to do that.”
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