Clare Smyth: ‘A crisis teaches you how adaptable you are’
The hospitality industry was at the sharp end of the economic havoc wreaked by Covid-19 — but one jewel in London’s fine-dining crown found some creative ways to improvise for survival.
When Clare Smyth opened her first restaurant in 2017, she wrote the business plan, negotiated the property lease, and shaped the interior design. Not all chefs roll their sleeves up this far to nurture a new business, but Smyth had absorbed a lot about the trade after almost two decades at the Gordon Ramsay Group.
Joining as a kitchen junior, she rose through the ranks to be chef patron at the Royal Hospital Road restaurant. “Even as a sous chef at 25 years old [at Gordon Ramsay Group], I would go to the boardroom and go through the profit and loss,” she recalls. “I’ve always been interested in business.”
Core had yet to celebrate its third birthday, however, when Covid-19 forced the restaurant to bolt its doors. “The first three years are really crucial for any business,” Smyth says. “And it’s been a rollercoaster, for sure.”
As well as facing the pressure of managing a fledgling business as the pandemic took hold, she also worried about the entire sector’s chances of survival. “When the lockdowns came, I remember looking in the mirror and asking myself: Are restaurants even going to exist in the future? How am I going to make this work?’’
At this juncture, Smyth used a business intangible to keep the cash flow going. She already had a reputation and a following, which proved invaluable to Core’s pandemic pivot to dine-at-home kits — a move common among other hospitality operators but executed by Smyth and her team with Michelin-grade flamboyance.
“Our guys delivered it in Core uniforms, we filmed the waiters reading the menu, we had playlists, flowers, champagne . . . We were also selling truffles and caviar.”
The “dine at home” restaurant took about 450 covers each weekend, which exceeded pre-pandemic booking numbers. Packaging, delivery and logistics added costs, but “we were able to break even”, Smyth says. “It covered the whole time we were closed. It brought us out on zero. We kept our entire team on full salaries.”
Turnover for the last tax year was £5.3mn and the forecast for this year is £5.5mn. Profitability, however, may suffer if food and energy costs continue to fluctuate. In addition, the dwindling numbers of hospitality workers post-Brexit could put pressure on payroll budgets as available staff negotiate higher wages.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Natalie Whittle
