A Glasgow restaurant owner has spoken about how he felt a 'moral' obligation to stay closed during the pandemic

A vegan restaurant owner told how he felt a 'moral' obligation to stay closed during the pandemic - and said he can't understand the rush to re-open businesses.

Craig Tannock employs around 180 members of staff across four restaurants in Glasgow but said he is 'uncomfortable' opening during the pandemic.

The restauranteur, who owns Mono, Stereo, the 78 and the Flying Duck, said the health and safety of staff and customers is his priority.

Picture credit: SWNS

He reopened two of the venues for a short time in September but said Mono a vegan restaurant, bar and live music venue would remain closed through November.

Mr Tannoch said all four venues were now closed and despite remaining shut for the majority of the pandemic he has not made any of his staff redundant.

He said he did not want to open the venues and risk losing more money because of social distancing, which would reduce the number of customers allowed in each venue.

Mr Tannock, from Glasgow, said: "We do not think it is appropriate for us to open in a moral or a business sense due to the current restrictions.

"We are uncomfortable opening up while this virus is about, full stop.

"Right from the beginning, I failed to understand this rush to re-open.

"From day one we have been reluctant to re-open.

"Number one is health and safety for staff and customers but there are lots of other considerations as well.

"We have always felt that we don't want to just open up to lose more money than you would by staying closed.

"There will be some hospitality businesses because of the nature of what they offer, where they are geographically - whether it's urban or rural and also the actual space of the premises - all these things factor in.

"There are some businesses who will be able to trade with social distancing and break even but there are a lot that can't.

"It can come down to the shape of your premises.

"But I can only speak for us."

Mr Tannoch said he was able to open The 78 in Glasgow's West End, and city centre venue Stereo for a short period in September.

He said: "The 78 is one of our few places which isn't heavily reliant on live music.

"If a large part of your trade is generated by live music then it's almost impossible to re-open in a way that is going to break even with social distancing.

"We have not had to make anyone redundant and that's not because before lockdown happened we had lots of resources.

"We really didn't.

"It's just that we have tried to be really careful with what we had and accessed whatever support we can.

" I can't make a call on anyone else's decision because you don't know what pressures they are under.

"Of course we want to be open but not in any way where we feel uncomfortable for staff.

"But that's not to say we aren't trying to re-open.

"We are just going to be very responsive to the changing situation."

Reporting by PA

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