(Photo: Doe's Barbershop)
The coronavirus pandemic has affected all spheres of human life. It has affected not only Czech entrepreneurs and companies, but also cultural institutions and catering services. The Telegraph reached out to a few Olomouc business leaders and asked them a few questions about the impact of the coronavirus crisis on their businesses and what events to look forward to after the government measures are over.
1. In what mode do you operate now, what impact has the current crisis had on your operations?
2. Are you planning any special events for your customers/visitors for the post-crisis period that should not be missed by the public?
Businesses who have shared their experiences with us: Mimokolektiv (Jana Trundová), Doe's Barbershop (Richard Laně), GEOX Šantovka (Petra Moudrá), Olomouc without packaging, Kikafe (Kristýna Smudová), NH Collection Olomouc Congress (Tomáš Rousek) , Galerie Caesar (Miroslav Schubert), MUO (Ondřej Zatloukal)
Mimokolektiv (Jana Trundová, designer)
1. Our design shop was paralyzed 100%. We were closed to the public, now we are reopening. We have been thinking about creating an e-shop for a long time and this question is on the table and already answered thanks to COVIDU-19. No one knows how this situation will continue and how many more turns it will take. We have to be prepared.
Life hasn't stopped in the studio, all the projects are going on and our work hasn't been affected. We work more from home and use online communication for some consultations. We are trying to focus on things that we wouldn't normally have time to do and use the crisis to our advantage.
Unfortunately we have to point out that some promised projects have been postponed indefinitely. We are fortunate to have work to do for months ahead, but also naturally concerned that demand for our activities will decrease in the coming year. This may occur in the next wave of the recession.
2. We believe that we will carry out the planned workshops that have been postponed and that we will bring news from Czech designers to Olomouc and be more active. We are not planning any bigger event, we want to return to Ztracena slowly.
Doe's Barbershop (Richard Lane, owner)
1. We are currently banned from operating until May 25. Although we can cut hair at clients' homes, it seems like nonsense to us. We do not cut hair in a barbershop that meets strict hygiene standards, and on the other hand, we do not visit clients' homes. So we try to prepare for the opening time, preparing training, new merch, and other activities for clients. We must not cry. We are no longer calculating the financial impact and are trying to make the best of the current situation. It is not pleasant for anyone.
2. Definitely! Probably the most important thing for clients is that we are open and they don't have to put their hair in a ponytail. We have stickers for them with a message that they survived this sh** with a stupid haircut. We've got merch and one more surprise we're gonna keep to ourselves for now. Just so we can get back to work.
GEOX Shantovka - Petra Moudrá
1. The GEOX store is currently focused on the eshop only. We offer our complete GEOX range and a little extra - such as Pollini, Trussardi, etc. Since Shantovka has closed the whole floor, we can't even issue goods directly from the store, so all business is done only by courier. However, thanks to the e-shop we manage to maintain some cash flow and so far we are managing the situation. However, if it is the case that the opening of the shopping malls will not really take place until 8 June, we will have to consider economic sustainability very carefully.
2. The spring season is in full swing and many customers need shoes for this period. However, as they prefer to buy in person with the opportunity to try them on, they are waiting for the stores to reopen. It is not only for these customers that we are preparing discount promotions and a specially selected spring collection that will be ready for them as soon as we are able to open the store.
Olomouc without packaging
1. I must say that we have felt the hand of fortune. We have not been forced to close quite, nor degraded in quality, due to our focus on local and quality food of clear origin. We know a significant number of our suppliers personally and our regular customers have always been very generous. The situation has had an impact on us, of course, but we know that compared to many other businesses, artists, cultural establishments, etc., we are relatively well off.
With the coronavirus, we have, aware of our own responsibility, the urgency of the situation and not least the impact of unsatisfactory information and weak professional discussion, taken a self-conscious approach, introducing logical measures without waiting for blanket measures. We decided to set up an e-shop and to make our brick-and-mortar, packaging-free shop a dispensing point for orders. A huge thank you to all the customers who played this battle with us, even though it was a new "game" for all of them and made up as we went along.
2. As of Monday, April 27, the store is back in normal operation, including accepting custom packaging. However, with an emphasis on the increased need for hygiene and disinfection. The e-shop will remain active, it will just take us a while to reconcile the stock data with our checkout system.
Online at shop.olomoucbezobalu.cz you can also purchase teas from Kratochvíle, a friendly business and space for independent culture in Olomouc. It is also worth mentioning the cooperation with the cooperative roastery and the Black Seeds collective, from whom we now offer Zapata fair trade coffee. Now we need to work on replenishing the range, which has necessarily had to give way to an economical operation.
Kikafe (Kristýna Smudová, owner)
1,2 We are currently operating in "window mode", for the first 14 days we were completely closed and only our e-shop was open. We have been pleasantly surprised by how many of our customers remember us and support us with their orders. At the moment we are running at about 50% with the window, of course it's not enough for a long term operation, but we are happy for at least something and for the really incredible support of our customers.
NH Collection Olomouc Congress (Tomáš Rousek, Director)
1. In the first week after the closure of the hotel, we dismissed 3 employees who worked for us during their probationary period. Our other employees received 100% of their wages for the month of March. They will also receive the same for the month of April. In view of our forecasts, we are forced to reduce our wage costs until the end of the year. During the month of April, we were able to find jobs for 10 of our employees, in our sister companies. Our people have therefore not lost their jobs, and we are in close contact with them in case our business gets back to its pre-coronavirus state. Since the first week of the closure, work has been carried out at all the resorts for which there was previously no space or time. From various repairs, renovations, cleaning, to upgrades or updates to some of the hotel's systems. The impact of the pandemic on our industry is truly overwhelming. Between March 16 and June 25, we are without 100% of our sales. And after that time, we estimate that we will be somewhere between 30-50% of sales by the end of the holiday season, compared to last year. Together we all believe in a better autumn.
2. For the next period we are preparing some attractive holiday packages for our customers. Whether for couples wellness or sports packages, or family stays with a really wide range of services. In our restaurants we want to serve simple, fresh dishes that are quick to prepare and exclusively made from local products. We don't forget children's menus or more sophisticated take away product offerings. In June, we will begin our long-planned hotel extension. It will be a design restaurant with an open kitchen, which will serve mainly visitors to social events, balls and congresses held in the premises of our beautiful hotel. The project of the restaurant is signed by the well-known architect Bára Škorpilová from Mimolimit studio. We believe that this investment, coupled with the fact that our winning team has not changed significantly even in these difficult times, will be a huge benefit to all our guests!
Caesar Gallery (Miroslav Schubert, gallery owner)
1. Government regulations associated with the epidemic are hard on everyone. Certainly for our gallery and culture in general. The gallery has lost all income in the current difficult times and on the other hand we have been left with all the necessary expenses. This is probably the most difficult task to cope with this situation. The exhibition programme is planned and contracted for the whole year and now we are doing everything we can to make it happen. The exhibition in March (Robert Buček) was held on a shortened schedule, but with great interest from the public, and the April exhibition (Adam Jílek) is installed and presented virtually for the time being. We hope that at the end of the month, thanks to the relaxation of government regulations, the audience will see it live.
In May, there will be an exhibition by Mark Nenutil - Every Time Thinks of Its Future, which may be very topical to today's situation. This exhibition will be accompanied by a large catalogue. It is therefore possible to say, a little exaggeratedly, that we are working regardless of the (viral) crisis.
2. Galerie Caesar, is currently the oldest private gallery in the Czech Republic. The exhibition program is focused on the presentation of contemporary art, on exhibitions of important Czech and foreign artists, as well as space is given to young, emerging or unknown artists. Nothing has changed in this, we will certainly continue to do so...
We are convinced that all our exhibitions are very well prepared for the same quality and educated audience. And we are already looking forward to them very much. If we consider our exhibition program as qualitatively balanced, it is not easy to single out something. But we can certainly call the cooperation of Caesar Gallery with the Olomouc Museum of Art in the first edition of the Triennal of Central European Culture and Art a "special event" or the special audiovisual installation by Pavel Mrkus, which the artist is preparing for our gallery.
Museum of Art Olomouc (Ondřej Zatloukal, director)
1. The museum has closed to the public. It has introduced a number of measures to protect its own staff. A significant issue that we are currently working on intensively is changes to the exhibition schedule for the next two years - among other things, we are moving foreign productions to a time when it will hopefully be possible to travel without restrictions. We are, however, trying to be at least accessible to the public online - we are continuing the Central European Art Database project, which offers a number of films and documentaries, and we are preparing video clips from exhibitions and commentaries on works owned by the Olomouc Museum of Art. In connection with the Triennial of Contemporary Central European Art 2020, which we were forced to postpone until next year, we are also preparing a series of author entries. These are intended not only to introduce the artists we have invited to collaborate, but also to offer insights into the situation in the countries where the period of general lockdown is taking place. We are also working on updates to the architectural plan for the new Central European Forum building, in the adaptation of the permanent exhibitions, in the digitisation of our collections, as well as in the preparation of grant projects. Among these are an application for funding to digitize a substantial portion of the collections the museum manages, entering the new media context (CEAD), establishing our own book series to augment the regular range of exhibition catalogues, and our intention to document our exhibitions for virtual tours.
2. In addition to the general opening of exhibitions - including new short-term exhibitions devoted, among other things, to the phenomenon of photobooks, tapestry in contemporary visual art, or the presentation of old art from the Diocesan Museum of Litomerice, which we are planning for the end of May this year - we are focusing on "live" matters. The first priority for us is the creation of an informal guarantor board, which will of course be international. In connection with this, we have just planned a conference in April to conclude the project "Fractured Times. Avant-Gardes in Central Europe 1908-1928", which was to launch the Forum's own activities. As such, the Forum is also linked to the creation of a comprehensive annual programme that will cross not only institutions, but also media or disciplines. The conference, which we are postponing to October, is one of the programmes planned in this way; another is the traditional Václav Burian Prize, which we are joining for the first time this year. Both are intended for the general public. A significant innovation is also awaiting CEAD, including the creation of CEADlab, which should connect the online environment with the real one, both in exhibitions and in the form of installations intended for public space. A more significant entry into the city was already planned in connection with the Triennial. We would not want to abandon this even under the pressure of circumstances - we are therefore planning to carry out some installations, interventions or smaller events in the coming months. In general, we are not cancelling the programme that has been prepared for the spring season, we are only adapting it - and moving it to the summer, which in all seriousness we intend to "spend together". In this sense, the culmination should be a large autumn exhibition dedicated to Olomouc in the 20th century, which we are preparing in cooperation with Pavel Zatloukal. Our motto is openness to change and adaptability to unexpected events, of course with all safety precautions. We understand museum buildings as public, as places of community life. For this reason, we are also seeking to reopen our cafés, albeit in a limited mode due to ongoing construction projects. The space should be used for readings, lectures, small evening programmes, but also for creative activities. We attach great importance to supporting independent culture.
By Sofia Taranenko, Telegraph Hub
