Welsh Businesses Urged to Shout More Loudly to Promote Themselves

Rural Enterprise , 12th August 2020

Welsh businesses need to stop being so modest and shout more loudly about their achievements – and we all have a role to play to help them.

That was the view of prominent business owners who took part in a Business Wales roundtable discussion, Running a Business in Rural Wales, at the Virtual Royal Welsh Show.

David Stockley, Managing Director of Brecon Carreg, told the panel:

“We have some fantastic brands but also a huge number of small businesses that need as much help in promoting themselves as possible. We need to double down on that in Wales as a whole.”

There is also a duty to try to source locally, he said, adding:

“We try to buy locally if we can, and if we can’t buy locally then we certainly try to buy in Wales. As private businesses who can do that, I think we should.”

Steve Adams, director of West Wales Life and Style, a soon-to-be-launched lifestyle magazine, said the Covid-19 crisis had increased the imperative for small businesses to make their names known.

“Once we come out of Covid completely, more than ever someone is going to have to shout about these fabulous little businesses we have throughout Wales,” he said.

Hywel Griffith, Chef Director of The Beach House, Oxwich, said he was expecting the hospitality sector to experience a boom upon re-opening – but he warned it could come too late for some.

“Most people who dine out regularly will be trying to book,” he said. “For us, we are almost full til the end of August. We could fill four times over and still not have enough space for everybody.

“My biggest worry is becoming the centre of an outbreak and having to shut down – we’d miss this really important period of business. That’s my biggest concern – not business levels.”

But some restaurants around Wales are struggling to survive, said Hywel.

“It’s almost like having three winters consecutively, because we’ve lost out on summer. We have come out of winter, this is almost like another business winter, then we’ll go back into another one. For most restaurants this is 100% going to be the case. There are a lot of restaurants which are going to reopen and shut pretty quickly. It is very, very sad as an industry to see that.”

But Hywel praised “fantastic” Government support for the sector in the form of grants, the furlough scheme and a VAT reduction, saying he hoped this would help the industry as a whole pull through.

“I’m trying to concentrate on the positives rather than the negatives,” he said.