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CORONAVIRUS AND ITS IMPACT ON DARTMOUTH BUSINESSES
For many businesses, the coronavirus has been a devastating bolt out of the blue with shops shut, hotels closed and restaurants laying empty. But some here in Dartmouth and Kingswear are adapting to new ways of working; bringing their coffee machines, cakes and tills out to the curb-side, or selling fish door-to-door. Others have actually benefited from the virus…
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do? If you have one - head out into the garden of course! Gardening became a revived hobby for thousands of Brits with shops around the UK inundated with demands for seeds and bedding plants. But Government orders meant most garden centres had to close for the first few months and this made life financially difficult for Gardentime on the outskirts of Dartmouth. Chris Varlow is in charge: “We
were in no man’s land at first, just waiting for news and guidelines. We managed to set up a delivery service with a skeleton staff - basically myself and a driver. We
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t seems everyone has taken to the water on a paddle board over the past few months! Sales of paddle boards increased during lockdown and some places sold out as everyone grew tired of walking and cycling. It’s easy to socially distance whilst balancing on the board, in fact it would be hard not to! There were no clubs running on the Dart during the first couple of months of lockdown, but Alana from the Paddle Shack says it didn’t stop them getting their boards on the water: “We knew we had to do something to get a bit of money during the crisis so we decided to rent out some of our boards to locals. We would deliver them to
Chris Varlow, OWNER OF GARDENTIME. did 600 deliveries over the first five weeks, it was mainly compost. Everyone went compost mad, it was the toilet rolls of the garden centre world!” Chris says they were running on
ith many of us stuck inside over lockdown, what’s the best thing to
“Everyone went compost mad, it was the toilet rolls of the garden centre world!”
a third of their normal turnover at that stage: “It wasn’t ideal as we invested in an expansion project late last year and were hoping this spring’s takings would set the bank balance straight. Instead we had to furlough pretty much all our staff and watch our turnover plummet just as
the busy spring season was due to start.”
But things really turned around when they were allowed to reopen in May and people were queuing up: “We were so busy we had to bring everyone back from furlough and retrain the café staff to work in the garden centre (as the café still
Alana Bonnick, THE PADDLE SHACK.
people’s front gardens then pick them up and clean them ready to go out again.” As a seasonal business Alana relies on the summer trade to get through the winter months: “We opened for the start of the season in March, had one lesson then had to close! It’s tough because we are popular with big groups like stags and hens and even when we were allowed to reopen we were only allowed to take five people out, plus an instructor, and lots of people are having to postpone their weddings, so we have missed out on a lot of big group bookings”. They have also had to cancel events such as their Breaking the Barrier where they get disabled young people out onto the
wasn’t allowed to open). Things improved so much that we’ve now made a full financial recovery which is astonishing in these times.” Chris says they carried out a 39-page risk assessment before reopening - only a certain number of customers are allowed in at any one time, people have to go one way around and we have to sanitise the trolleys after every use. Chris says it hasn’t been an easy ride: “I’d like to thank my fantastic team, who’ve stayed positive and put in extra hours, and our customers who’ve been supportive and understanding throughout.” •
water. They have, however, had a lot of demand for their lessons and hope to introduce some wildlife trips this year: “I think people need a bit of calm during the crisis and it’s so nice to see the world from the water. During all this we have taken locals out who have lived in the area for 20 or 30 years, but have never been to the little coves or hidden beaches right on their doorstep.” •
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