Easter treats perk up catering business forced to adapt to COVID restrictions

Easter is big business for Malta’s pastry chefs, but COVID-19’s public health restrictions have shut down the store-fronts that paraded the figolla, sfineġ and the ubiquitous chocolate bunny.

But even as the catering industry was left reeling from COVID-19’s shutdown of wedding venues, the internet and food delivery platforms are still helping businesses make up for the shortfall.

For the big names in the business, Easter is still providing brisk business, with Busy Bee’s Geoffrey Friggieri and Elia’s managing director Pawlu Borg Bonaci saying the COVID wage supplement and other Malta Enterprise grants had been crucial to keeping all their staff on their books despite the loss in income.

Busy Bee retained its entire 120-staff workforce, despite various concessions employees had to make. But Friggieri says the switch to online and deliveries kept the business going throughout the pandemic.

“As soon as the pandemic broke, and with the first lockdown, we planned out how to take the business fully online. Today, online sales and deliveries have more than made up for lost sales on table service and sales at our outlets,” he said. “Like some other companies, ours is a family business and has been for four generations, so we found it easy to come together to devise a contingency plan.”

The company also introduced new product lines that necessitate the recruitment of staff for newly-created positions.

Even Borg Bonaci said that online sales and deliveries had sky-rocketed during the pandemic, making up for the shortfall in over-the-counter sales. For both businesses, their established names helped them build up a strong following online and on food delivery platforms. “Sales picked up again in the run-up to Easter, as it did for Christmas and Carnival,” Borg Bonaci said. “Thankfully, the Maltese love their sweets and most now look for quality.”

The company also introduced new product lines that necessitate the recruitment of staff for newly-created positions

Weddings: no bliss, just blues

For these catering companies, COVID-19’s most devastating effect has been on the wedding industry, as prospective brides and grooms cancelled or postponed their weddings.

Friggieri told MaltaToday that Busy Bee had over 200 weddings cancelled or postponed in 2020 alone. And although the deposits paid could not be returned to clients, Friggieri said the company was doing its utmost to accommodate client wishes for alternate dates and redesigned menus. “We understand our clients’ dilemma and the extra expenses they face because of the pandemic,” he said. “Many of our clients are also understanding our limitations in currently not being able to guarantee anything for the foreseeable future.”

Elia Caterers face the same issues. Borg Bonaci said the company had over 130 weddings cancelled or postponed last year, with many couples postponing twice, some three or four times.

“We will accommodate those clients that had to postpone their wedding because of COVID, but we are incurring heavy losses so these postponements will need to occupy dates that could have been booked by new clients. Companies like ours made losses over nearly every booking postponed, since we were left with a lot of stock in hand that could not be used,” he said. “In fact, many times, we ended up giving it away.”

Easter staple: the figolla, by Busy Bee

Borg Bonaci said mitigating measures had also introduced additional costs to weddings: with mandatory seating, caterers had to invest in additional tables, chairs, linen, flatware and tableware. And tables that could seat 10 guests could only allow six guests to be seated – translating into additional costs for the couples too, who had to fork out an average of €20 per table and €7 per chair.

“When seated, people tend to eat more and therefore couples had to pay for additional food for each guest,” Borg Bonaci said. Couples had to absorb these additional costs, as well as new charges for postponing transport, venue, florists, printers and wedding planners.

“To somehow absorb these added costs, many of those couples who chose to go ahead with a sit-down wedding, ended up drastically reducing their guest list,” Borg Bonaci said.

In fact, from an average wedding of 400 to 500 guests, most weddings held in 2020 averaged between 80 and 120 guests.

But even more worrying was the uncertainty as to the future, Borg Bonaci said. “If 2021 ends up being as bad as 2020 was, then we will find ourselves in a scary situation because we definitely will not be able to sustain the losses we did last year,” he said. “This year was supposed to get better for us, with the possibility of extra bookings, when you factor in the postponements.”

Borg Bonaci said that the uncertainty was creating a lot of uneaseiness and that he was finding it difficult to explain to couples that he could offer them no guarantees on their special event. “I have had couples crying in front of me, because I cannot confirm that the wedding they want to book can be held without guests having to be seated,” he said. “I do not know when the industry will be back to normal, so I cannot tell clients that things will be fine.”