‘Our focus is firmly on survival’
The Cyprus Mail continues its weekly feature talking to an individual who represents a specific group on how they survived a year like no other
French restaurant La Maison Fleurie owner Giannis Ioannou has just seen Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou’s announcement extending the current measures until January.
“This is very bad. And loan installments will soon start. We have been shut for so long,” Ioannou told the Cyprus Mail.
La Maison Fleurie is a staple in Limassol’s fine dining scene. It was founded in 1986 after Giannis and his family returned to Cyprus from Paris.
Though the restaurant is now essentially in its second generation his parents are still active in the business.
Giannis is clearly proud of the restaurant and its long history, explaining that it has been unwavering in its commitment to serving classic, authentic French dishes.
However, the restaurant business and the hospitality industry in general are experiencing the worst of times at the moment, with the entire sector being plagued by the coronavirus pandemic.
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“I think a lot of restaurants will have major problems. I don’t think all of us will survive it. Some restaurants have big rents to cope with and the government hasn’t done anything to help with that aspect at all,” Giannis said.
“The compensations that are being provided are a joke. The percentage of the wages sponsored is too low, as is the money they give out for your lost revenue. You could be given 1000 euros when you could have had a turnover several times that amount.”
The hospitality industry also finds itself at the cross-section of other sectors.
“When you shut the hospitality industry, you’re also affecting suppliers, distributors, logistics companies, people across the entire supply chain.”
They are also affected by any restrictive decisions and consumer behaviour in the travel industry.
“We were shut down in March and opened in late May. When we reopened we expected people to go out but things were quite tepid. The summer was also quiet for us. My clients are primarily Russian and British who could not travel to Cyprus for quite some time. Now with either country’s vaccine starting to be used, I expect an uptick next spring and summer but I believe the winter will be very difficult.”
Giannis’ restaurant is heavily reliant on non-Cypriots.
“A large part of my client base is foreign, whether visiting Cyprus or living here on a permanent basis. Few locals visit the restaurant.”
Giannis feels that the government mishandled the approach towards his industry, citing a number of things they could have done differently.
“I personally consider the handling of the hospitality industry to be ridiculous and unfair. Why so? It’s not because I’m part of it. They shut down the restaurants but it has had no real dent in the number of cases so far.”
He qualifies this statement by adding that another reason why cases haven’t fallen is because the second lockdown has been less carefully enforced compared to the first one. Police have to be told who is violating the rules rather than being as vigilant as before, he said.
“Also, how can you shut businesses down but allow ten people inside the same house? It’s not as if you can enforce that number either,” he added.
He also views the blanket approach to the shutdowns as suboptimal and finds it strange that all hospitality establishments get lumped up into the same bracket.
“We were never a restaurant working with a large number of clients. This is the mistake by the government. You can’t group us with big coffee shops, fast food restaurants, bars, taverns, and so on all together as if we’re all the same. They could have let some remain open. This could have allowed them to save money from the ones still open and better compensate those who absolutely had to shut down.”
For Giannis the delivery option as a way for restaurants to cope only works to a limited extent and hardly at all in his case.
“Food deliveries are also suffering. They performed better in the first lockdown because it was stricter than the second one,” he said.
“Deliveries don’t do that much to offset the lost revenue. They help a little with daily expenses, that’s it. Of course, I am speaking from the point of view of my own restaurant. Fine dining doesn’t translate too well to food deliveries. I serve foie gras, duck confit, and the like. People don’t associate these items with a take-out.”
He believes the only hope for the industry is the vaccine.
“If people don’t get the vaccine, how are we supposed to exit this mess?” Giannis said, angry at the conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccine.
“Whenever something bad happens people tend to bundle issues together which is the wrong approach. People should not listen to these and opportunists.”
Giannis is thankful that the restaurant has no rent to further burden its finances, but is worried about personal costs and debts that will soon need to be repaid. Even so, he avoided dipping into the wage sponsoring schemes for as long as they could, only using them when they had to shut down completely.
“We’re all family here. We’re a very small business. We just want to operate the same way we were before the pandemic.”
Giannis explained that though their union, Pasyka, did fight for them as an industry, it taught him that people shouldn’t expect one or two people to do everything
“In Cyprus we’ve learned to be too individualistic. We have to look at things more collectively. I am personally going to become more involved in the union,” he said.
The severity and unpredictability of the pandemic have also affected Giannis on a philosophical level, reminding him how volatile life can be.
“You can’t be too rigid in your planning. Of course you must be measured in life, but you can’t forget to treat yourself.”
As for any immediate plans for both himself and the business, the message was succinct.
“Our focus is firmly on survival, nothing more.”
