By Scott Wright

IT is an odd position, to say the least, for a hospitality company to be less than three weeks from Christmas with no real insight into when it will next be allowed to trade.

This is 2020, of course, the year of coronavirus when all normal conventions are tossed into the air and cast to the four winds.

Given the circumstances, David Tracey, managing director of Manorview Group, is understandably cautious about the firm’s prospects for the festive season. It is still possible, after all, that some venues will remain stuck in level four of Scotland’s lockdown system after December 11, and unable to open before Christmas.

“Ongoing restrictions have continued to provide a massive challenge for us, especially when all our venues have been in tier four during the current lockdown,” said Mr Tracey, a well-known figure on the Scottish hospitality scene through his spells with G1 Group, BrewDog, and as a bar operator in his own right.

“We are remaining positive and focussed and are very excited to be able to re-open in some way from December 11, although a few of our outlets will remain in hibernation throughout December and into January.

“We’re unsure of how trading over the festive period will go, consumer confidence is fragile at the moment and if we are unable to serve alcohol and meals in the evening our expectations are pretty low.”

West of Scotland-based Manorview would normally expect to be extremely busy in the weeks before Christmas, given the reputation venues such as the Busby Hotel have built for their festive party nights. Coronavirus will deny the business the opportunity this year, just as it wiped out the hundreds of weddings – another key market for Manorview – that had been had scheduled for 2020.

With so much of its core business on ice, the company has made the decision to mothball several of its hotels until the New Year.

Mr Tracey said Manorview, which was founded by entrepreneur Stephen Graham in 2007, is using the hiatus to focus on staff well-being, revitalise its properties and “work very hard on things we can control, and make the most of that”.

He is grateful for the support provided by the company’s bank, Barclays, which in the early days of the pandemic in May provided a £3.25 million loan to help tide it through lockdown. By that stage, the company had already given a public commitment that it would be making no redundancies among its then 500-strong team as a result of the crisis – before the furlough scheme was announced.

The funding was over and above a £2.85m loan advanced by the bank earlier in the year to fund the redevelopment of the Redhurst Hotel in Giffnock

“As soon as we knew we were closing [and] would need a level of support, Barclays stepped up and were able to offer us an element of funding that should see us through the crisis,” Mr Tracey said.

One task it has been able to focus on is the £4m reconstruction of the Redhurst Hotel. While construction was initially disrupted by the first lockdown, work has been continuing apace in recent months. The contractor should be ready to hand the building back to Manorview early in the new year. The new-look hotel, which was originally launched by Stakis in the 1960s, will have a bar, restaurant, 17 bedrooms and a large function and events space. It is on track to open in February or March.

“We feel blessed, almost, to have a development coming to the end of its construction at this time,” Mr Tracey said. “We are looking forward to putting it back in the heart of the community for the people of Giffnock.”

Mr Tracey said it was been rewarding to witness the “team resolve” at Manorview and a determination of colleagues to pull together, despite the many challenges along the way. It remains committed to becoming a Living Wage employer as soon as trading stabilises.

However, it has not come through the crisis entirely unscathed. Nine stuff were made redundant at its bar and nightclub operation in Coatbridge. “It’s not been easy,” Mr Tracey said. “We have had our challenges like everybody else. We tried to hold on to most [staff]. We had to go through a small redundancy at Innishmohr, which is our bar, pub and club complex in Coatbridge. We mothballed the nightclub because there is no prospect of them opening for quite a time.”

Manorview has also had to contend with some disappointed couples, whose weddings booked at venues such as Boclair House in Bearsden or The Torrance Hotel in East Kilbride, have had to be postponed. It normally hosts around 600 weddings a year.

Mr Tracey said there has been “great demand” for bookings throughout the pandemic, and notes that the number of cancellations has been “very low” as couples have been able to reschedule. However, there have been a few disappointed couples along the way.

“I completely understand the frustration, disappointment and sadness… there were some couples that were weeks away from having their dream day,” Mr Tracey said. “We have tried to be as fair and balanced throughout the whole situation as we can.

“We had approximately 1,500 weddings on the books, and we might have had half a dozen that were a bit tricky… but have been able to resolve all our situations with the brides and grooms.”

For Mr Tracey, operating in lockdown must seem a world away from his early days in the trade, when he blazed a trail as the entrepreneurial owner of the Strata cocktail bar on Glasgow’s Queen Street. But he is relishing life at Manorview nonetheless.

“It’s been a real journey, but it has been fun as well,” he said. “I am really enjoying it. It has been a great fit for me. I work well with Steve. We are a good team.

“We have a great leadership team as well. In any other, broader situation it would be easier, but I am enjoying it. We are powering on with what we can do to keep ourselves moving forward.”