New businesses try to adapt, find footing during COVID-19 pandemic

It’s been a roller-coaster two weeks for Warehouse Brewing in Regina.

Two weeks ago, the new brewery opened its doors for the first time to customers. Now, due to the ever-changing social and legal restrictions due to concerns around COVID-19, the taproom has been closed and five of its nine staff members have been laid off.

Brandi Reading, the director of operations for Warehouse Brewing, said the company has seen a revenue decrease of more than 50 per cent from what was expected with the taproom closing.

“We weren’t out in the public very long prior to this happening and we’re now switched to offsale and delivery, so it’s definitely cut our revenue down substantially,” she said. “We’re plugging forward and doing what we can.”

Warehouse Brewing is one of the many businesses in Regina that have had to make changes due to restrictions put in place by the provincial government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Reading said being a new business while everyone is self-isolating and social distancing is tough, because it doesn’t have the name recognition like other places in the city.

“You look at the other beautiful breweries and distilleries in Regina, they have their name behind them – everybody’s tried their beers, everybody knows them,” Reading said. “We’re just coming out of the gate and the community’s just meeting us. So now we have to try and get us acquainted with everybody at a distance.”

She said the worst-case scenario for the company and other hospitality businesses would be if they had to completely shut down their offsale and delivery services as well.

“If we have the offsale taken away from us and that option, then I feel that it would be detrimental to all of us,” Reading said.

Reading said the owners are still gathering information about if they can apply for financial help from the province and Ottawa during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On Monday, the Government of Saskatchewan announced the formation of its Business Response Team to help answer questions businesses may have.

Reading said Warehouse will welcome back the staff it let go with open arms once the restrictions begin to get lifted.

While Everyday Kitchen has been open for several months, it is also seeing the same problems Warehouse Brewing did.

As a new business, co-owner Mark Shmelinski said the first year is really important as owners try to carve out a customer base and get their name out there in the city.

“You’re kind of establishing a foothold and a footprint in a city — really try to learn everything about how your business operates, your cash flow position,” he said.

Everyday Kitchen has pivoted its business to an online model quickly.

“We had to be very agile; last week was kind of changing every day,” Shmelinski said. “The way we started our business was kind of digital first, and so we’ve been able to adapt quickly over the weekend.”

Shmelinski said the company doesn’t plan on laying off any employees unless it’s forced to close its doors due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“That isn’t just detrimental to our business, but I think the greater sense of the economy as a whole,” Shmelinski  said.

He said the company was down about 20 per cent of its normal business revenue due to having to close the coffee bar portion of the business. It will also be donating 100 per cent of its profits to different community organizations.

“There’s a lot of fear, a lot of hopelessness in our city and in the small business community, so we wanted to try and do something to try and inject positivity and hope,” Shmelinski said.

He said the business can handle two or three months of being closed, but it wouldn’t last forever.

“Anything past that would definitely start to stretch our resources,” he said.