Cafe Networks Call State Support A Horror Movie – It Will Be Hard Even In The Summer

Turnover fell 38 percent, calling it a horror movie

Speaking of the first quarantine, Vytautas Kratulis, director of the Huracán café, said that although there was much more uncertainty at the time, the business felt better from the support received from the state.

“Compared to what was offered to us then and is offered now, it is now just a horror movie. Let’s say during the first wave of rents, the state contributed a little bit, a little bit to the landlord as well as us, and now it’s scary.

The state offers us only one sixth of the support compared to what it was during the first wave. The second package offers support to those whose turnover has been reduced by more than 60%, and what does that mean? Our turnover, in November-January 2019, was reduced by approximately 38% compared to the same period in 2020, so we are no longer in that support package.

That means we are with everyone who has fallen 30 percent. and he offered us to recover 25 percent. In 2019, your GPM paid.

What is it? This is one sixth of the support. And this quarantine is already 4 months, although the first was 3 “, – said the head of” Delfi “.

According to him, for the company, November – January have always been the best in the industry, which, according to him, rose to the top for the entire year of the company, but this year is different and support is slow.

“And we still hope that support will come anyway, on February 1 we also opened a cafe at Vilnius airport. What is it? It is a state-owned company, but we have not received any discount on the rent, which amounts to an amount huge, and the people at the airport are exactly zero. We have been paying them rent even earlier because we were late to open it, “he said, assuring him that the state was giving support with one hand and taking it with the other.

“I no longer know how everything will end here,” V. Kratulis considered.

According to the manager, no company employees have been laid off during the pandemic year and some are currently in downtime.

“I said during the first quarantine that I would allow a company to be in business, if you want to fire people, let them fire. Because in the Employment Service they would get as much as they received, and now they get less in downtime, but they do not leave for fear of their work.

Now our company is accumulating losses. It will be difficult ”, he assured.

It is true that in the summer the business will recover and higher sales can be observed, explained V. Kratulis, who was not expecting much.

“I doubt that there are tourists, that tourism recovers and that our people go to the cities at home for so long.

I think they will go out into the wild in the summer and our business is concentrated in the city, ”he said.

Huracan Coffee currently operates a network of 8 cafes.

Saved by Norwegian shareholders

“Our Norwegians saved more than 700 Lithuanian employees and businesses, and if we were to wait for help from the state, I really don’t know how we would have survived,” said Reitan Conveniene Lithuania, a Norwegian company that owns such brands in Lithuania, as Varvintas Bartaševičius , Managing Director of Narvesen, Lietuvos Spauda and the Caffeine coffee chain. According to him, during the first quarantine, the turnover of the companies was reduced by 80%, and during the second, by approximately 50%.

“The first quarantine was more difficult for us than the second. Our billing dropped 80% the first time and 50% the second. It’s by number, it’s easier ”, said the manager.

He said that during the first quarantine, the biggest drop in billing was also influenced by the closure of airports in Lithuania, which led to lower revenues.

“Another thing, if we compare the number of billing drops, 80 and 50 percent, then in 2020 we opened several new cafes, seven: one on Kudirkos Street, Savanorių Ave., Kaunas, a couple of airport cafes, in the new Paupis neighborhood, Uptown bazaar. ”These open cafes helped reduce the overall decline, but of course costs also increased.

But for us, the turnover decreased less during the second quarantine and also because we did additional things. We also launched this application, when the company can offer coffee to its employees at a discount, we expand online commerce, we sell tools to make coffee ”, he shared his experience.
Speaking of the newly opened sites, the manager assured that the investments were provided to them by the Norwegian shareholders of the company, who said they did not change development plans due to the pandemic.

“One of the values ​​of our owners is that we live without debt. This means that they have no debts with the bank. That’s when COVID-19 came in, they had money in reserve to help their companies that needed it, and they helped us right away. If we were to wait for state help here, I really don’t know how we would have managed to survive, “he said openly.

The manager also assured that the company had requested support from the Lithuanian authorities.

“We apply for employee downtime allowances, so only now do we get money for November and not even all, but part. Everything is far behind.

We have also applied for the support of the first business aid package, but we do not know or have any information yet.

The general support provided by the state can be evaluated in two ways. It’s one thing when you say there is a large company here and there are restrictions on getting support, it is such a deal that if a large company needs less support, which, in my opinion, sounds a little strange.

We have a total of just over 700 employees in these three brands, so if a company of this type “collapsed”, it would be 700 employees free and affected at the same time. I’m not saying that small companies are less important, but large companies also suffer great losses, “he said.

According to the manager, today the coffee business is not picking up yet, and the largest queues at the cafe door can only be observed due to the limited number of customers that can be inside at the same time, so they wait outside.

The second quarantine has not yet received support.

Tautvydas Sinkevičius, sales manager for Vero Cafe, also assured that the current situation of the company, like other coffee shops, is similar. According to him, the turnover has been reduced by 65 percent.

“The pandemic affected the Vero Cafe network, as well as other Lithuanian companies, but we found ways to adapt to the new conditions: we manage customer flows responsibly, we ensure the disinfection of facilities and the protection of employees. We are also implementing innovations: we have opened an e-shop, we are promoting distance selling, we offer professional coffee machines for homes with educational videos for customers, ”he said about how he tried to adapt to the partially closed business.

According to T. Sinkevičius, there are currently 27 of the company’s 40 cafes in operation, and the employees of the closed cafes have been affected by periods of inactivity.

When asked about the support received from the state, he said that the company is trying to use all relief measures, but the support during the second quarantine, which takes almost 4 months, has not yet reached the company.

“During the first quarantine, this assistance was very important for the regulation of payment flows.

We also apply during the second quarantine, but we have not received support yet. We hope that the state institutions will react faster, because the timely financial injection is necessary to avoid long-term economic damage, for us and other Lithuanian companies, “he said, but added that at the time of the quarantine conditions there is a certain increase in customer activity.

Currently, the Vero Cafe network consists of 40 cafes in Lithuania, and another one is planned to open soon in Kaunas.