A RESTAURANT owner has made an urgent appeal for the public to support their favourite pubs and restaurants to avoid them being forced to close.
Neil Paterson, owner of the restaurant and bed and breakfast business Bistro en Glaze in Wylam, said it is difficult to recruit staff and businesses are also having to cope with increasing costs.
"We've finally got some staff but we've been struggling for months to get enough," he said. "We could still do with some more, but it's difficult to justify that when people haven't got the money to come out.
"We had more than 300 people apply for four posts. We invited about 35 folk for interview. Only eight bothered to turn up."
Neil said the industry is facing recruitment issues as there are easier jobs, people don't want to work anti-social hours, public transport in small villages is an issue and Brexit has led to staff shortages.
Neil said if these problems aren't fixed, Bistro en Glaze may close.
"Other hospitality businesses will close. Everyone I talk to is on their last gasp. If it doesn't work in the next few weeks, there are going to be an awful lot of closures.
"People will miss them, when their favourite restaurant or pub is not there, but if the public don't use it, they're going to lose it.
"Nobody seems to realise hospitality is dying on its feet," Neil said.
However, that hasn't been everyone's experience of running a pub.
Alan Phillipson has owned the independent Hexham pub The Heart of Northumberland for eight years, and said the business is in a better position than most although he is still seeing increasing costs.
A new room is being added upstairs which will be used for functions and Alan hopes this will counteract the pub's reduced margins.
He said: "Since the pandemic, it's massive issue after massive issue.
"It feels like it's settling down a bit except for the cost side of it."
He said when the business has recruited in the last few months, they had a huge amount of applications, more than the previous two years.
"We've had a good few years, we're lucky we can run at a low margin for a while.
"Our reduced operating margins will be counteracted by expanding the business with the function room. The industry as a whole is struggling with cost increases, but thankfully Hexham feels like it’s having a mini-boom. Being previously voted the happiest place to live on top of the Queens Hall, cinema and local events programme are really helping," Alan said.
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