One of Britain’s most powerful business tycoons has launched a blistering attack on the Government, warning that Boris Johnson’s ‘weakness and indecision’ on reopening restaurants, pubs and cafes will cost more than two million workers their jobs.
In a rare interview, restaurateur and private members’ club mogul Richard Caring – whose empire includes the famous Annabel’s club, Scott’s in London and The Ivy restaurant chain – warned the Prime Minister he was ‘killing the country’ by failing to outline when hospitality venues could reopen and whether they would have to abide by the two-metre social distancing rule.
Caring, whose staff have now delivered a million and one freshly cooked free meals to NHS workers and vulnerable people in lockdown, said Ministers had grossly underestimated the permanent damage being done to Britain’s 26,000 restaurants.
He told The Mail on Sunday that thousands of businesses and their employees were in the ‘eye of a storm’ – surviving thanks only to the Government’s taxpayer-funded furlough scheme that pays staff wages, and a pause on rent and business rates tax bills.
In a rare interview, restaurateur and private members’ club mogul Richard Caring has warned the Prime Minister he was ‘killing the country’ by failing to outline when hospitality venues could reopen
As soon as state aid measures are withdrawn, Caring warned, as many as ‘50 per cent or 60 per cent’ of the four-million-strong hospitality workforce could be laid off and restaurants, cafes and bars shuttered for good.
He said the wave of redundancies would be ‘like a volcano’ erupting, with the worst of the pain coming in September and October when the furlough scheme ends.
The intervention by arguably the most influential businessman in the hospitality industry will pile pressure on the Prime Minister to ease two-metre social distancing rules and follow countries such as France, Spain, Italy and Germany in allowing restaurants and pubs to reopen with less onerous restrictions.
Calling for urgent action to avert the looming jobs crisis, Caring said: ‘The beginning of the lockdown gave us an initial shock.
Now it’s quite calm because people are furloughed, businesses are not paying staff, they are not paying rent, they are not paying rates and staff don’t have the expense of going to work and the expense of going out.
‘So as a restaurateur, you believe you can sit tight and survive, and that’s what everyone’s doing. But the big problem that people shy away from is that we’re in the eye of a storm. ‘The fact is, down the road there’s a volcano that is going to bubble over.
I don’t think people can see it yet, but everyone in hospitality is beginning to realise they will have to make heavy cuts. ‘This volcano, unless we wake up to it now, it’s going to be horrendous. It’s just going to explode, spewing out unemployed people. The pain and suffering it is going to cause is horrific.
‘There are estimates saying we could have up to five million unemployed. It’s not going to be five million – it’s going to be more. I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet. The Government is killing the country right now and the hospitality industry is the frontline disaster.’
Caring’s empire includes the famous Annabel’s club (pictured), along with Scott’s in London and The Ivy restaurant chain
Caring, a Tory donor, rarely makes public statements, so his intervention is likely to be received in Westminster as a piercing blow to the Government. The tycoon – who is known as the ‘king of clubs’ for his array of prized assets which also include Harry’s Bar and Mark’s Club, the J Sheekey, Sexy Fish and Le Caprice restaurants in London, as well as the Bill’s chain and a major stake in the Soho House clubs network – paid £150,000 last year at a Tory Party fundraising event to dine with Mr Johnson at the Mark’s Club in Mayfair.
Talking to The Mail on Sunday alongside his right-hand man Alexander Spencer-Churchill, the grandson of the 10th Duke of Marlborough, Caring urged the Prime Minister to be ‘brave’ and ‘stand up and be counted’. Mr Johnson has launched a review of the two-metre rule and indicated that hospitality businesses might be allowed to reopen on July 4.
But he has given no concrete assurances and speculation is rife that the PM wants to keep social distancing at two metres until September, when schoolchildren are scheduled to return to classrooms. ‘The British people are tough, but they want to have something to hold on to, and we’re not giving them anything at the moment, just “maybes”,’
Caring said. ‘They deserve more.’ He believes the Government has failed to grasp the scale of the looming unemployment crisis. Alongside the two million hospitality layoffs, Caring estimates that 25 per cent of those on furlough in other industries will eventually lose their jobs.
He predicts that the cull will push the overall jobless figure for Britain to an astonishing seven million people – equal to about one in five of the working-age population. ‘The clock is ticking and when furlough ends, that will be it for a lot of businesses,’ he said. ‘Businesses that were not strong in December 2019 will not survive. I think the country is going to wake up to this terrible shock.’
In Europe, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal have all allowed restaurants to open with 1.5 metres social distancing. Meanwhile, France, Austria, Denmark, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Lithuania and Singapore require only one metre. Guidelines issued by the World Health Organisation also recommend keeping a distance of one metre.
Caring said: ‘If they can do it elsewhere, why not here? ‘I get so many calls from people saying when are you going to open the restaurants. ‘My answer is I can’t – there are no regulations, there are no rules, there is no information. We don’t know if we need glass screens between tables. Is it two metres without screens? One and a half with screens? We don’t know. We’re just told it’s under review, under review, under review.’
Caring said ‘the world has turned on its head five times’ since Britain went into lockdown in March to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. He has spent it at his home in London with wife Patricia and their three children, aged one, three and five.
‘I’m just so very upset for everyone in this country and I just want everyone to be OK. ‘This crisis has changed my way of thinking dramatically. This has been such as tremendous shock to everybody.’ In January, Caring completed a deal with the former prime minister of Qatar that brought in additional investment for his hospitality empire.
The Prime Minister is yet to outline when hospitality venues could reopen and whether they would have to abide by the two-metre social distancing rule
‘We as a company were in expansion mode right up until the announcement of Covid back in February,’ Caring revealed. ‘Now that whole landscape has changed totally and our focus has become being secure and protective.’
He added: ‘We hadn’t signed any contracts because we were waiting for clarity on Brexit, so we didn’t actually complete any of the expansion. And then Covid hit – so our hesitation really proved to be fortunate.’ ‘I have definitely at this time lost some of the aggression to expand. Now it’s about survival. We are anxious to reach a place of calm.’
Caring started out in clothing and made his name importing fashion lines from the Far East to high street giants such as Next and many other retailers, before moving into the restaurant and private members’ club business with the purchase of Caprice Holdings group for £31.5million in 2005.
The flamboyant mogul has donated generously to help the pandemic relief effort. Together with his wife, he set up The Caring Foundation earlier this year to feed NHS workers, critically vulnerable communities, hungry children, the unemployed and the isolated elderly across the UK and Ireland during the pandemic.
More than 1,000 of Caring’s staff volunteered to cook meals in 26 kitchens at Annabel’s, The Ivy Collection, Caprice and Bill’s restaurants in cities and towns including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Cardiff, Brighton and London. To help with storage and distribution in the capital, The Caring Foundation partnered with The Felix Project, a charity which fights food waste and hunger.
On the menu has been The Ivy’s shepherd’s pie, Harry’s lasagne, Sexy Fish chilli and other favourites from Caring’s restaurants. At 3pm last Thursday, Caring’s volunteers handed out meal number one million and one.
‘The Caring Foundation meals were very much my wife Patricia’s idea,’ Caring said. ‘She came to me one day three months ago and said there’s a situation where the Foundation can help as concern for people’s wellbeing unfolded on the news. ‘The Caring Foundation cannot thank all of the staff involved enough for their kindness and generosity of time.’
Members of Caring’s private clubs, including Annabel’s, donated £2million towards the cost of the scheme and a JustGiving fundraising page was set up where members of the public donated sums from as little as £5.
‘Many of those additional donations were sent with the kindest of supporting messages,’ he said. Caring himself is guaranteeing the final bill. He said the volunteers are now having a two-week rest to give staff a ‘bit of a break’ after reaching a million and one meals and assess whether the scheme is still useful as lockdown is eased.
‘My own feeling is that there will be a lot more needed going forward,’ Caring said. Spencer-Churchill, who helped with the volunteering effort, said: ‘We are so grateful for our members’ incredible generosity in helping health workers and those desperately in need. Our staff say the freshly cooked, nutritious food has gone down very well.’
The Caring Foundation has also partnered with Bem Querer Mulher (BQM), a UN-backed charity programme in Brazil that fights domestic violence against women and children. Figures show domestic violence cases across the world have risen with families isolated for long periods during lockdown, and the Caring-BQM partnership, which has been set up by Patricia, will open a new Well Woman Centre in San Paolo offering support to women and children who are victims of abuse. A similar centre is planned for London.
Despite his best efforts, Caring said his business empire won’t escape the job cuts forecast for later this year. He warned that ‘value’ restaurant chains such as Bill’s were most at risk of the industry-wide layoffs. Familiar high street names such as Cafe Rouge and Frankie & Benny’s have already announced swathes of closures and job cuts.
‘I’m really upset about losing staff because we have a lot of very good people,’ Caring said. ‘But we have to look at staying in business. ‘I’m of no use to our staff if we go out of business, so we have to make cuts. ‘I like to think that this will turn itself around to the point where we can bring those people back very soon.’
Caring said nearly all the landlords of his restaurants had been ‘supportive’ during the lockdown, adding: ‘I strongly recommend that landlords and tenants communicate – they are hand-in-hand in this situation and only by the willingness to be aware of each other’s problems can they make positive progress. They need each other now more than ever before.’
He said the widely reported investment deal in January with Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani – who also owns Claridge’s, The Connaught, The Shard sky scraper and Paris Saint-Germain football club – ‘put us on the international stage’.
‘The idea was we would have partners with worldwide experience and knowledge we could tap into for our benefit. They are extremely impressive and solid people and we have learned an awful lot from them in our short experience.
‘[But now] I’m not looking at fast expansion. This crisis has been a real eye-opener for me and I’m sure the rest of the world. ‘I would definitely settle for a quieter life in future.’
Spencer-Churchill added: ‘Our members have being amazing from all clubs and what touches me the most is they have asked about the welfare of the staff – we really have the best members.
‘Without our team we would not have the clubs we have.’ In a final plea to the Prime Minister, Caring said so far the Government had been ‘extremely forthcoming’ in supporting the economy. But he said Ministers now ‘must really stand up and be counted’ and ‘stop being evasive’.
He argued that Britain should ‘carry on urgently printing money’ to prop up businesses starved of income to pay their bills. Figures on Friday showed the UK economy shrank by 20.4 per cent in April and a cross-party group of MPs warned that three-quarters of pubs, restaurants, hotels and travel businesses would not be able to operate if they had to reopen under two-metre social distancing.
Caring said: ‘The Government has either got to say we’re going to have 15, 20, 25 per cent of the population unemployed and we’d rather pay that bill, or they’ve got to get involved and start making some decisions, because this is not a problem that’s going to go away.
‘The only difference between this and the Great Depression of the 1930s is that today our banks are better capitalised, our Government is more aware and money is cheap for the foreseeable future.
‘If I was Prime Minister, I would print a lot more money because this devastation is going to last a long time. What are they waiting for? ‘Someone has got to stand up and be counted. Answer questions, have a plan.
‘I believe in this country and the courage of the British people. We went through the Blitz and this is the Blitz again, times ten. We could do with a Winston Churchill, but we will come out of it. ‘But the economy is going to be so damaged and the unemployment rates so high that it’s going to take many years. We’re destroying the economy as we go.
‘My message to the Government would be make some decisions, give us something to hold on to and take advantage of the low interest rates that are definitely here for the foreseeable future. ‘Because the pain of 20 to 25 per cent unemployment and the suffering and the hardship that will cause will be three times worse than this virus.’