Highlighting Glasgow’s hospitality sector amid 850th anniversary events

National World - LocalTV

We speak to the Chamber of Commerce to learn more about Taste the Plate, a campaign to encourage Glaswegians to explore independent food and drink across the city.

Transcript

00:00Okay, so Taste of Place will be an opportunity to kind of remind people that live here what's on their doorsteps

00:06I think that we get very cosy in Glasgow. We tend to

00:10You know, we have our own neighbourhoods

00:12so we stick to them and you know trying to convince someone from the south side to go across to the West End can be

00:16a bit of a, you have to do some convincing and stuff

00:19But you know, there's a lot of thought, it's great that people are very comfortable in their neighbourhoods

00:22But this is a great reminder that there's lots out there to explore. I mean, I've been writing about Glasgow

00:28non-stop for the last 10 years and I'm still finding out the things every day.

00:32Yep, absolutely and guilty as charged

00:34I'm a West Ender, I have been for 40 years and I do find myself a natural choice and actually one of the things I've

00:42found really

00:43interesting as we've developed up Taste of Place is the south side. Honestly

00:49You could get me across to the tramway now and again and it depends what you call the south side

00:53But I would have to be honest and say I'm not there that often

00:58This is something that will make me go and explore it in a more determined way

01:03Taste of Place, it gives me a reason to go and explore and find out what's going on there

01:09The council leader is a south sider. So she tells me all the things that I really should be going to explore

01:17So I will, that will be one of the challenges I'll take up for this particular project that we've set out for 8.50

01:24This is a message that's gone beyond Glasgow to other places, that Glasgow is an interesting place

01:30Time Out magazine said that this is one of the great food and drink cities in the UK. So

01:36What are you hearing? Because you know, the other thing that's really fascinating is that last year despite all the challenges

01:42The openings of independent food and drink was up by 30%. I mean, that's a remarkable thing

01:49Are we just all off our heeds and just going to do it anyway, you know. Bit of that

01:53I think there is a bit of that. It's like a challenge in a city, don't we. It's not, I suppose

01:59Going into hospitality. It's not a huge barrier to entry

02:03sector. If you've got an idea you can get it going. Yeah, you can get it going relatively cheaply

02:08But as a consequence, the risk levels are quite high because it's so competitive

02:13But it's so much more competitive now

02:15I can go back 40 years and I'll tell you I was involved in hospitality to a certain extent

02:21Over the years and when you opened a new place back in the 90s

02:25You were thinking, oh, maybe there's two or three places nearby that are competition that we need to think about

02:29And now it'll be two or three times that. So it is a much much more competitive world

02:34It's a tough gig being in the hospitality

02:36Costs have been going up quite substantially. Energy costs that you can't control

02:42The costs involved in hiring staff have gone up

02:46Minimum wage. Can't argue against the importance of the minimum wage

02:50But it does make it more difficult for particularly for smaller independent

02:53Organisations to succeed in hospitality

02:57And particularly for independents who can't really control your purchasing costs

03:02They don't have the same buying leverage that the big players do

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