Pubs and breweries prepare for reopening as lockdown eases
Report by Victoria Davies
Many businesses will be opening their doors again for the first time in three months as lockdown begins to ease on 4 July.
It will mean the return of many restaurants, cinemas, hairdressers and pubs - as long as they all ensure they are Covid-secure.
But, it will not be as straightforward as before when you queued at the bar to order a pint.
In many pubs you will be greeted by hand sanitiser, no-one at the bar and a table ordering service.
However, it is not just pubs that will be relieved by the return of customers, but also the breweries and suppliers behind them.
After pubs closed overnight in March, bosses at Lilley's Cider in Frome feared the brewery would shut down making all staff redundant.
The craft cider business in Somerset laid off the majority of its staff after sales plummeted in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic - but thankfully the furlough scheme meant they could keep the majority employed.
An influx in online orders also thankfully helped to keep the business afloat.
Now as pubs start to reopen, they hope a brilliant end to the summer will make up for some of the lost time.
"It was horrible I literally thought i was going to have to make two thirds of my staff redundant or make them all redundant and shut the business down.
"But thanks to the furlough scheme everyone has been paid throughout lockdown and now everyone's going to be back and hopefully we'll have a brilliant end to the summer take some good money and cut down our losses for the year".
Staff at pubs will be expected to wear face coverings, but not clinical face masks and other PPE which is needed in hospitals.
Venues should also keep a record of all their customers for 21 days in order to help the NHS trace any outbreak