The landlord of a popular pub claims he has has a "record breaking" start to the year, despite facing major challenges.
Andy Evans has been at the helm of the Cricketers Arms in St Helens for just shy of ten years, and in that time he has guided the pub to several awards and the Cricketers has established itself as one of the town's favourite pubs. It has not been all plain sailing however, with the pandemic offering unprecedented challenges to the hospitality industry.
The 50-year-old told the ECHO: "The strain on the business from covid was unreal, the amount of stock we had to throw away, and the stop-start with opening and closing was so hard on us.
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"When the government put an end to furlough, we had to hire 80% new staff because the old staff didn't want to come back from furlough. That meant training new staff members fully, and in a new hospitality environment for us all.
"Then we could only open the outside with table service which itself was a nightmare, we did okay and were busy a lot but it was so labour intensive for the staff, there was so much hard work involved. We were doing okay with numbers, but there were times we may have gone bust if it hadn't been for government grants."
Despite the first few months of 2023 bringing a severe cost of living crisis, Andy said he and his team have never been as busy. He added: "We just had a record-breaking January and it's unreal, I don't know if it's a combination of people coming into the pub to keep warm with the energy prices, or just wanting to get out more after the pandemic, but we're doing well at the minute."
The continued success of the Cricketers has prompted Andy to delve into a new venture, opening the Taverners Pizza Kitchen at the pub, undergoing training to make fresh pizzas daily for customers. He added: "The launch couldn't have gone any better. We could have sold out 20 times over, thanks to everyone who helped to support the launch."
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