Snow blow for business
Feb 04 2009
SMEs want thaw
Small firms are reeling after business took a hit from the snowy weather.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) calculated that the economy lost £1.2 billion on Monday and then again on Tuesday, as around a fifth of the UK’s workforce took those days off.
London-based businesses received a heavy blow as train lines were down and bus services were cancelled on Monday, with some transport links continuing to run partial services through Tuesday.
Many SMEs were surprised at the lack of a contingency plan. Anis Tibou, manager of Tassili restaurant, tells SmallBusiness.co.uk: ‘Business has just been dead. We had about 80 per cent of the customers we would normally have [on Tuesday] and even less on Monday.
‘This has mainly been because the buses have been down, but also because of the trains. Even though the government knew about the snow, no one made any preparations. As a result, a lot of businesses are suffering.’
Ali Balta, manager of Snow White Master Dry Cleaners, agrees. ‘I couldn’t even get into work until midday on Monday, and then we only had one customer. That’s a whole day’s business lost.’
A spokesperson for the London councils group, says: ‘We have to accept that we are just not geared up for this amount of snowfall, of course boroughs have a vested interest in doing what they can. Local authorities were out as early as Friday gritting roads, but the only thing that would have shifted this amount of snow was snow ploughs.’
Stephen Alambritis, head of policy at the FSB, says more needs to be done in the future. ‘We are calling on Boris Johnson to meet with other countries who have heavy snowfall and learn from them. We were very surprised that the London bus service was pulled,’ he adds.
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