How Irish businesses see the future when lockdowns end

With a lot more of a focus on local and Irish-made products since the pandemic began we spoke to some SMEs about how they foresee the future, once lockdowns end.

Rebecca Winckworth, White & Green

"We have seen a marked rise in support for local Irish business since the pandemic arose. It is quite spectacular to see the difference that we can make when we decide to shop a little less with huge retail giants like Amazon and a little more with small entrepreneurs. I hope that supporting small businesses will continue in our post-Covid world. Buying local or from small businesses means supporting someone's dream, and how amazing is that?"

William Despard, Bretzel Bakery

“The real positive and silver lining to our business is the local response to our bakery, shop and formerly café in Portobello. Local support in each lockdown has given a new energy. Year on year trade is up 40 per cent; most of the increase is new customers who had the time to find us, many enjoying real bread and the health benefits of sourdough for the first time. We are very confident in retaining the new business - as eating good food that is good for you will not go out of fashion.”

Ludovic Lantier, Butler’s Pantry

“The centre of The Butler’s Pantry ethos has always concentrated on premium-quality Irish ingredients and products. We have found this is something that has been really important to people throughout this pandemic and, of course, with Brexit. People are shopping locally to help communities come back when all of this is over. More and more people are inclined to shop on their doorstep and because of limits on travel it has meant we are seeing the same faces coming into our stores.

“All our food is traceable back to the farm. We source our fruit and vegetables as locally as possible in order to retain the food’s maximum nutritional impact and to reduce our carbon footprint. We are different to other retailers as we choose to make our own version of everything we serve. Thus, buying local and seasonal fruit and vegetables when in abundance allows us to make our own authentic dishes, condiments and desserts where you can really taste the freshness. We always buy raw and staple ingredients where possible. Additionally, in our stores we support small Irish Artisan food producers too.”

Lisa Doyle, Dublin Liberties Distillery

“We have found support in Dublin has been huge. So many people are saying they want to support us, and the general feeling is support Irish. With Brexit, I look more local because of the impacts. I’ve stopped ordering from the UK because of the difficulty of getting it in. I was on to a supplier yesterday who supplies e-commerce boxes and they are so busy right now because people didn’t realise they could get these kinds of items in Ireland. We went to the UK before, we never looked locally but now we will continue to work with them for the foreseeable future.”

Joe O’Regan, Put Your Feet Up

“People are keen to support local because of the threat to jobs. Buying from the UK, for example, fast fashion has dramatically changed post-Brexit because you have a VAT bill now which makes it less simple. More and more people will be buying Irish when this is over, I believe. We went strong on sustainability from the get-go, with an eco-themed product, and it is 99 per cent plastic free. The demand is there for modern Irish and those products will export well. How many SMEs are going to survive, however, and what the knock on effect is going to be remains to be seen. We see ourselves as one of the success stories within that, and we hope to keep building on it in the future.”