Is Dartmouth Bouncing Back?


mostly from visitors, have remained strong throughout the summer. We are almost fully booked for all of October and are even receiving many bookings beyond that. The help from government and our landlords The Dartmouth Trust have all helped enormously. The downside is that we are all absolutely exhausted! We are looking forward to taking a break.”


Similar sentiments were expressed


by Bob Kendrick of Kendricks. He reports a strong summer but interestingly has also seen a healthy number of residents return in recent weeks. “It’s too early to judge how the winter will go – there won’t be many Xmas parties! The 10pm curfew shouldn’t really dampen our business although we have to open slightly earlier at 5.30pm to allow our usual turn of tables. It will be critical that customers, especially local residents, remain confident in going out to eat over the next few weeks.”


Activity businesses such as Sea


Kayak Devon, Dartmouth Boat Hire, the Castle Ferry etc have also reported brisk business through July to September. For such businesses, it is much easier to social distance outdoors and customers feel safe as a result. Cleaning down equipment etc between bookings adds extra workload especially where such businesses are running with less staff but, overall, most seem confident that their businesses will be in a strong position next year.


Many of the retailers we spoke


to have benefited from the higher number of visitors. Gift shops such as Port of Call and Gifts for Gentlemen have had a “brilliant summer”. They’re still busy going into the Autumn but a strong Christmas will be important if they are to claw back fully the lost sales from lockdown. Ronnie Barnard of Gifts for Gentlemen reports, “Strangely, we have seen many visitors buying Christmas presents in summer...”


Some shops have been able to take


advantage of residents’ caution in visiting busy supermarkets e.g. more people are buying wine & spirits


Michael Sutton Wines also


benefited from the same trend and was able to make up for its much- reduced income from events and courses with greatly increased local deliveries, winning many new customers that have continued to order from them. Dartmouth Fine Foods, which previously focused on catering for outside events, ‘pivoted’ its business much earlier than planned by re-focusing instead on pre-cooking and delivering ready- made high quality meals to many new local customers. Customers won during lockdown have remained loyal.


Whilst some shops report healthy business, many are still operating with reduced staff, some on furlough, but also because elderly part-time staff have understandably been more cautious about returning to work. It seems there are many ‘exhausted’ retailers who have hardly had a day off in weeks!


Nonetheless, it is not all good news


for local non-food retailers. Those that rely on regular local customers,


from Dartmouth Wine Company who report a “crazy summer”. It also helps if you go that extra mile – Dartmouth Wine Co offered free deliveries within 6 miles for minimum orders of £30 during lockdown. Consequently, they were doing up to 10-20 deliveries per day: joint owner Ed Capper calculated he lifted 16 tonnes, 5 times in one week – no wonder he’s lost 1½ stone! We understand that the local butchers, greengrocers, fishmongers and farm shops etc have also seen very healthy sales as a result of the caution in using supermarkets and, it must be said, residents have been keen to support local shops as best they can.


Many customers have postponed or cancelled their holidays abroad and invested the money saved in new kitchens instead.


particularly clothing shops, have had a much tougher time. People feel less safe to go shopping when there are so many visitors in the town, they are also socialising less and, if they are buying clothes, many are just as easily buying online. The smaller independent boutiques such as Sally Brown, House of Hawkins etc are having a tough time and are having to be increasingly creative to encourage customers to shop. Sally Brown has been allowing customers to make exclusive appointments in the shop outside of normal opening hours or hand delivering clothes for customers to try on at home. For such shops, long term survival will depend on local residents remaining loyal over the winter months and start spending again.


Away from hospitality and retail, other sectors seem largely to be doing well. Builders and other trades are extremely busy as they try to cope with demand pent up during lockdown. Howdens Dartmouth say they have been exceptionally busy since July. Many customers have postponed or cancelled their holidays abroad and invested the money saved in new kitchens instead. Fitters and other contractors have reaped the reward – Andrew Watson, a regular advertiser in this magazine, reports demand is very strong.


The time in lockdown has


encouraged many home-owners to look at their homes with fresh eyes – a make-over or refurbishment is the result. Dartmouth Self Storage, which was able to stay open during lockdown, has seen no adverse impact from Covid with demand for its units in Dartmouth and Totnes extremely strong (“it’s been mad!”) as customers reorganise their homes or put stuff into storage whilst they refurbish. They have also seen strong demand due to the strong recovery in the local housing market. Vendors are using self- storage to make their homes tidier for selling or because they need temporary storage during or soon after the sale process.


Local estate agents have all


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