How focusing on catering helped many venues stay afloat - opinion

“I come from a family with deep roots in the events’ industry. A decade ago, I set up a catering company specializing in home-cooked-style comfort food, together with two childhood friends of mine, Dotan Levi and Avi Gonen. The business started with a food market offering a range of 200 dishes for private customers as well as companies and organizations. Five years ago, we also opened a venue for events with space for up to 500 people, with the aim of offering something different and unique. For example, if the clients come from a Persian family, we will offer dishes from that part of the world, to give their guests a taste of home. It is very important to us that our clients have a positive and meaningful experience with us—whether that is with the catering or the venue.

“On the eve of the outbreak of the pandemic, we were employing dozens of staff at the venue and the catering, but we furloughed almost all of them during the first lockdown. Luckily for us, the catering side of the business kept working, albeit with restrictions, so we focused on that—upgrading our delivery service and focusing our advertising on our target markets in Petach Tikva and the Gush Dan region. Some of our clients closed down or transitioned to remote working, so we experienced a drop in our income. You could say that the food market of the catering side of the business helped us to keep our heads above water.

”Since the end of the Counting of the Omer and the recent tensions, there has been a welcome stream of event bookings, but it’s important to understand that the picture has changed in the sector. Many businesses did not survive the pandemic, and there is a situation now where there is significant demand, but the cost of events has also increased. Couples that cancelled weddings received their money back.  COVID-19 was a sucker punch for all of us, and we didn’t want to place the burden on young couples taking their first steps. So in recent months we renovated and upgraded the venue, and a few weeks ago we held our first taster evening in more than a year for couples getting married. It’s encouraging, but the last year has taught us to be cautious and not to get ahead of ourselves.”

“We opened our event complex in Yavne in 2014, and I am the CEO and head chef. We have a large venue with space for more than 800 people, a smaller venue with space for up to 500, and a magnificent and beautifully tended outdoor space. Our line of work involves bringing joy to all the people of Israel—and that is not easy. It requires waking up each morning with joy and love in your heart, because every day is the special day for the bride and groom, a day they spent a year building toward with you, and you have to put on the most beautiful and moving event possible for them, with the best food.

“Before COVID-19, we employed 150-200 staff, including waiters, cooks, administrative staff, sales and maintenance workers, and work was going great, with two events every evening. Suddenly rumors started to spread about a possible lockdown, and with them came a wave of calls from worried clients asking what they should do. I found myself serving as an information service. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine that the lockdowns would begin and all the venues would be closed for more than a year. Because our cash flow policy is to not take deposits from our clients, we simply returned the cheques to them.

“Between one lockdown and the next, we held a few smaller ceremonies, even though it was not financially worth our while, because we couldn’t bring ourselves to disappoint couples who just wanted to get married already. We tried to help wherever we could. It’s sad to say, but I saw couples before the wedding who fell apart and broke up because they were unable to overcome the stress and strain. Since the end of the third lockdown, and especially since the end of the Counting of the Omer, our diary has started filling up with orders again, but it goes without saying that it will take time for the sector to recover and for the restrictions on the number of guests to be fully lifted. At the moment we are busy trying to rebuild the team, but it’s hard to recruit new workers, despite the fact that salaries in the events’ sector have spiked by at least 40% over the past year. I expect the government to stop the furlough payments already, to push people to go back to work.”

The events’ industry in Israel, which is worth approximately 10 billion NIS a year, was dealt a significant blow by COVID-19. State support—a partial exemption from the “arnona” (property tax), dedicated loans, furlough arrangements for workers and regular grants—did indeed help a significant proportion of venue owners to overcome the crisis. Now, with the market reopening, it is clear to see that despite the increase in demand, there is also a significant increase in their fixed and variable expenses.

Like a skilled painter who stops every once in a while to examine their painting before going back to it and making adjustments, here too my suggestion to venue owners would be to stop for a moment and adjust the direction of travel. The present situation necessitates a new business plan—to understand the precise economic ramifications of the new circumstances and to adjust the pricing models, expenses and cash flow accordingly, to enable you to thrive once the pandemic is over. At the same time, keep creating parallel income sources (such as private catering, food delivery services etc.) to ensure you have a steady source of income that will be able to withstand any future tremors.

For those businesses that are now starting to wake from hibernation after the extended period of lockdowns, and especially for those such as event halls that have a more protracted and drawn-out return to full capacity, it is important to carry out an assessment on several important aspects of the business: the staff—how many of them are expected to return to work and how many new staff members will need to be hired; the clients—making sure to keep in close contact with regular clients while working to bring in new ones; and suppliers—retaining close ties with them to ensure a steady and reliable partnership. Establishing these parameters is a vital anchor to ensure stability.

At the same time, it is important to keep a close eye on the cash flow, until it begins to stabilize and orders begin to return to pre-COVID levels. If there are any shortfalls—schedule a meeting with your banker to discuss the needs of your business and to make it up as quickly as possible. Another important tip is to shift to online bookings, so that the client can see exactly when there are free dates in the venue’s website and book them for their event, and as soon as the order comes in, a representative from the venue can call them back to arrange a meeting to finalize the details.