Diageo is rolling out a freephone support phoneline for pub owners, their staff and their immediate families affected by the pandemic. The new bar helpline is financed as part of the €14 million Guinness Raising the Bar fund set up by Diageo this summer and is staffed by a team of counsellors and finance experts from 9am to 5pm weekdays.
Raising the Bar is a two-year pub support programme run by Diageo.
To ensure that calls are answered even out of hours, counsellors are available to take calls 24/7. The financial impact of Covid-19 pub closures has seen one third of pubs in Dublin closed continuously for the last eight months. A recent survey showed that Irish consumers are concerned about the loss of jobs and a decrease in community spirit and morale.
Half of all pubs in Ireland were allowed to open for only three out of the last 35 weeks after at least four delays to reopen over the summer. Almost half of publicans have borrowed as much as €16,000 since March and one in five as much as €30,000 to cover staff wages and health and safety equipment, such as perspex screens and PPE.
Almost 5,000 pubs have registered for the fund since June, with over 3,000 outlets receiving reopening kits, with upwards of 87,500 litres of hand sanitiser and 30,000 uniforms. The fund also provided 700 pubs with items to create safe, weather-proof, outdoor spaces and sponsored mandatory compliance training for over 11,000 staff.
Contact details for the helpline are available at www.MyDiageo.com
