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By Ian McConnell

Business Editor

THE owner of a landmark Glasgow restaurant has highlighted the “new assault course” created for his bistro by the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit, flagging import and general supply-chain challenges as well as recruitment difficulties.

Marco Giannasi, who owns the Battlefield Rest with wife Yellena, flagged new challenges in importing food, such as pasta, jam, and honey, from Italy. He also highlighted, in a general context, “patchy supply” of some products, and delays to deliveries arising from driver shortages, in an interview with The Herald.

Mr Giannasi said: “You need to add all the things together – what has happened in the past two years. There has been a lot of changes in the world, especially in Europe – Brexit.”

Highlighting additional paperwork required for imports from the European Union because of Brexit, he added: “There is a new process of things for importing goods. We still buy directly from a local producer where I come from [north of Tuscany].”

Noting such orders normally arrived within a week to 10 days, Mr Giannasi said: “This time it took nearly seven weeks because it is a whole new process of applying. That took a long time to process. It was costly as well to put that in place.”

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Commenting on more general supply issues affecting the restaurant sector, and many others, in the UK, Mr Giannasi said: “There is patchy supply of some products at the moment. There is a wee bit of a lack of some, it seems, in stock. The suppliers don’t seem to have stock or the deliveries get moved to different days because obviously there is an issue with driver shortage so obviously deliveries get delayed on arrival in general. It is kind of a little bit uncomfortable at the moment to source things.”

The restaurant owner also flagged difficulties in finding tradesmen.

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He tweeted last week: “How extraordinary has been such a strong demand on all industries, sectors either on finding employees or tradesmen or simply spare parts or products. The ‘Pandemic & Brexit’ has created a New Assault Course for us to challenge.”

Mr Giannasi noted the impact of Covid-related self-isolation on driver shortages and, in the context of Brexit, added: “How many drivers were from other countries? That is a statistic we need to find out because that would be interesting to see. How many are here? How many have gone back since the pandemic?”

Revealing a decision to stop opening on Sundays, Mr Giannasi tweeted this week: “We have taken the difficult decision to return to being closed on a Sunday from the 6th Sept. This is to help with the general wellbeing of our staff. Also due to logistical difficulties in getting fresh produce.”

He noted Sundays had been busy but underlined current challenges.

The Battlefield Rest has raised employee numbers from 18 to 20, including Mr Giannasi and his wife, and has tried to hire further staff.

Mr Giannasi said: “I decided it is better to have the same people, going back to six days a week. At least it kind of relieves the pressure on all of them. Just for the sake of a busy day, are you going to jeopardise the rest of the team and their welfare? ... You don’t want to overcrowd yourself and put a lot of pressure into their bodies and minds. We tried to source staff for over two months.”