As the kids head back to school this week we are reflecting on the strangest summer yet and what it has meant to Macneil's Smokehouse.
Macneil's, like every other business world wide has seen changes, uncertainty, quick thinking, adaption and new-systems-a-plenty.
When we first learned of the Coronavirus outbreak we went from making smoked salmon and other smoked products for independent retailers and restaurants to making a new game plan every day. We began by downloading the daily changing government advice and ended up planning a complete business overhaul over the space of 2 or 3 weeks.
While juggling essential furlough for some of our team, and working from home for others, for those of us left at the production facility we had the realisation that we were becoming what the government termed "key workers" and our safety and the future of Macneil's meant that we had to devise safe distancing, extra cleaning, visitor restrictions and crisis proof plans and fast. Thus the night shift was born. This meant that if anyone on one shift became ill the whole shift could isolate while the opposite shift could contine to produce our smoked products and continue to supply our customers.
With the speedy and devastating closure of all of our retaurant customers (approximately 40% of our business) we had no idea what the immediate future held for us. How our retail customers would react to the situation was also unclear and we began planning for the possibility that they too would be next to close.
We began stocking up our online shop with lots of Macneil's Smokehouse hampers and other local products to sell direct to the public via our national courier service and put the word out on social media of discount codes and how to order for home delivery.
As we began to see our online sales grow, so too did demand for our retailers to provide home deliveries and click and collect services. As the big supermarkets began to struggle to supply essentials, home delivery slots booked months in advance and customers nervous to spend hours queuing at larger shops, the independent food retailers started to become the key providers of food, drinks and household goods to isolating customers and rural communities across the UK.
The adaptability of these small business owners has been the key to their incredibly quick turn around of systems, services and shop layouts. Without the constraints of large organisations who were struggling to cope with the influx of extra customers our small retail customers have gladly taken the opportunity to prove to their local communities, of which they are a part, their importance. These farm shops, food halls, delis and online retailers have sourced volunteers, created online shops, developed local delivery routes, laid on extra opening hours, sourced new stock, pushed furniture about, installed screens, queue systems, sanitising stations, one way signs, built extra storage areas and so many incredible innovative solutions to the ever increasing guidelines that have allowed them all to stay open.
On our delivery routes we have met so many independant retailers who have been resolutely determined to supply their local community with food and essentials while remaining true to their ethos of supporting local suppliers, insisting on quality, employing local staff within their community and keeping an eye on the vulnerable. These amazing people have kept entire villages going while being a hub of positivity and adapatability.
We are so proud to be a part of their supply chain. We personally have changed our shopping habits and use our local farm shops, village shops and delis as often as possible, only venturing out to the supermarket when shift patterns force us to.
The restaurant trade has seen such a different version of events and as many of our retail customers are also restaurant customers (shops with cafes attached) they have often been first to trial re-opening or new ways of encouraging customers back.
Each restaurant has tried their own ideas to stay in touch with customers and found different ways of providing much needed restaurant food. We have, so sadly, seen some of our customers close for good, but some have diversified in to different areas of food - drawing, for example, on their love of baking, some creating delivery routes, some making cook at home kits, some converting the premesis in to retail shops, some installing food vans in the car park and others offering take outs. We've seen new buildings, outdoor areas, innovative menu re-designs and radical new furniture layouts.
That's not to say that restaurants are out of the woods yet. The eat out to help out scheme has doubtless created footfall but for many of our restaurant customers they are yet to see the full return to pre-covid sales and with safe distancing, diners reluctant to venture out yet and more critically, large groups and parties unable to gather, the restaurant industry could be some way from where we were in February.
Macneil's have seen a gradual return of our restaurant customers and those that have re-opened and begun ordering again have seen some real success that gives us a lot of hope. We have certainly missed being able to eat out.
Our plans now turn to Christmas as we stick a finger in the air to guess how things are going to go. We are so grateful to all of our regular customers for continuing to order from us and most of all to the people who have gone out to an independant retailer and purchased a pack of smoked salmon or smoked duck and more and enjoyed it at home to make the perfect meal without the aid of a chef. We are so lucky to have our customers and we are excited to see where this journey takes us next.
If you want to eat our smoked products in a restaurant or you want to visit your local retailer and see what else they have in their shops please do see our interactive map to find everyone we supply.
If you want to keep up with our social media pages where we regularly post discount codes for our followers you can catch up with us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter