The Coronavirus pandemic has affected countries in many different ways, including social, political and economical.
Unfortunately the consequences of the pandemic has had a major impact on businesses in the UK.
But what will be the state of businesses in Middlesbough following the Coronavirus pandemic?
The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic has hugely affected businesses both large and small within the Middlesbrough area.
There has been a massive number of retail and restaurant closures, as well as businesses in other sectors such as the hair and beauty industry, travel industry and many more.
The closures of these businesses have led to hundreds of thousands of job losses, along side the thousands of people that still remain on furlough.
‘Furlough’ is a scheme that was introduced by the government at the start of the lock down in March 2020, to help businesses during the global pandemic that we now know as ‘Covid-19’.
Furlough pays the wages of staff that work for struggling businesses or retailers that remain closed due to the pandemic.
Thankfully with support from the ‘Furloguh scheme’ many businesses have been able to remain opening and survive the long lasting lock downs.
However for some businesses they have not been so lucky.
Unfortunately some of the businesses that have been most affected over the past year have been big names in retail, including the Arcadia group and Debenhams, however in recent weeks Thorntons has been the latest name to join the ever-growing list.
Thankfully in January this year, Topshop and Miss Selfridge were bought by Asos for £30 million however they only took 300 staff from Topshop and Miss Selfridge with them, this means that there is 2,500 jobs at risk.
Again, Debenhams closed a deal with Boohoo in January this year for £55 million, despite the save of the business Boohoo is taking Debenhams to online only, meaning like Topshop and Miss Selfridge there is 12,000 jobs at risk.
Where as Thorntons are closing all 61 stores due to administration so there is 600 jobs at risk there too.
Elizabeth Waller is a former sales assistant at Outfit, part of the Arcadia group, who sadly lost her job this year due the Coronavirus pandemic.
She said: “When it was announced that the Arcadia group was going into administration I was very worried for what this meant.”
“I had been working at Outfit part time whilst also studying for my degree in Youth and Childhood studies.
“In this modern day I never thought such a big retail group as the Arcadia group would be under so much pressure that they would have no option but to close down, especially as they were the owners of brands like Topshop and Miss Selfridge that are so popular.
“I will miss working there as I worked with such a nice group of people.
“Right now there aren’t many part time jobs available so I’m focusing on my degree and enjoying the easing of restrictions.
“I hope this is an eyeopener for people to start supporting the shops on their high streets over online retailers because if not it may result in more empty units like those of Outfit and Topshop.”
“Hopefully with the road map out of lock down the retail industry will pick up again and more big names will avoid falling into the same position as the Arcadia group” Elizabeth said.
Despite the high-street being under pressure from the impact of Covid-19, sales on online sites like Amazon and Ebay have massively increased.
Even before lock down a social shift meant people were diverting away from their high streets and were adapting to shopping online as their every day means of purchasing.
According to a survey carried out by Statista in 2019, on opinions of people in the United Kingdom on shopping on Amazon, 46.43% of people admitted that they do not mind shopping with Amazon whilst 23.89% love shopping there, with only 6.2% saying they have never shopped there.
This reflects in a later study also by Statista in 2021 showing that sales in the United Kingdom on Amazon went through the roof in 2020 with their annual net UK sales reaching $26.5 Million dollars which was a huge rise from the previous year where their UK net sales were $17.5 Million dollars.
In addition to this in November last year the number of total world wide visits to Amazon via desktop and mobile devices, was at the highest it has been all year having reached 579.5 Million.
But sadly, alongside high-street retailers other industries have been suffering.
Sharon Starkey, Managing Director of Resolution, a marketing agency on Teesside explained how her business has been affected by the pandemic.
Sharon Starkey, Managing Director of Resolution Sharon said: “As a business we work with clients locally and nationally, as well as specialising in developing communication strategy and implementing campaigns to grow brand reach.”
“I am the managing director of the business working closely with a team of four.
“My role changed significantly throughout the last year as we adapted to working remotely.
“As a creative agency we benefit hugely from interaction with the rest of the team and had to utilise technology and embrace remote working.
“Our systems have improved and now we are back in the office we are benefiting from those practices we put in place.
“Our team has grown during the pandemic as we reviewed our offer and worked alongside our clients to deliver their requirements.
“When the first lock down was announced our business took a hit as clients reviewed their requirements and did what they needed to do in order to retain cash flow.
“Our excellent relationship with our clients meant we were able to engage with them and adapt quickly.
“We took advantage of some of the government and local schemes and repositioned ourselves in order to adjust.
“As a result we refined our offer and have gained new clients, growing our team to deliver the services.
“We are hopeful things are back on track and recognise the honest relationships we have with our supportive clients as having a positive impact on our growth.”
“The people of Teesside are well versed at managing change, we have an ability to adapt and embrace challenge.
“Some sectors such as hospitality and tourism have been affected more than others but we have definitely seen examples of great leadership as business owners have reviewed their model and reacted to the situation.
“As a business we are continuing to listen to our clients and trying to be as responsive as possible whilst doing what we can to support the business community.”
Middlesbrough Council released information on how many business grants were successfully awarded during the pandemic.
In the ‘Small business’ category Middlesbrough council awarded 626 £10,000 grants, this covered businesses of all industries: pubs, restaurants, independent shops, hair and beauty salons and many more.
They also awarded 313 grants between £10,000 and £25,000 to retail industries with the remaining 63 grants of £10,000 ad £5,000 being awarded discretionary.
Without these grants given by Middlesbrough Council we may have seen many more business closures due to the on going struggles of the pandemic.
The endless amount of lock downs have meant many retails, pubs and restaurants have been closed for the majority of the past year.
But following the devastating effects of the pandemic what will the business industry look like in 5 years time?
Will our high street go back to the thriving hot spot it once was or will it be constantly picking up the pieces of the endless lock downs of 2020/2021?
