SMEs like us do not qualify for support through the government support grants and relief packages, according to Richard Tyler, co-founder of British men’s accessories brand Tyler & Tyler. Tyler & Tyler comes from the stable of a British family-controlled manufacturing company that have been making men’s fashion accessories for UK’s fashion designers.
Discussing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic Tyler said, “Like many businesses, we are facing great hardship through these unprecedented times but we’re also finding we are being left out of the current support packages from government. We fall into UKFT’s ‘The Forgotten Middle’ category. We took the decision to close our business on March 22, 2020, to ensure the welfare of our staff and our business. The majority of our business as a company is supplying retail – so the minute the government told retailers to close we knew we would not see any new business coming in. We work with metals and, although we were maintaining all the required social distancing measures, as the virus could live on the metals for some time so we felt it was the right thing to do to close.”SMEs like us do not qualify for support through the government support grants and relief packages, according to Richard Tyler, co-founder of British men's accessories brand Tyler & Tyler. Tyler & Tyler comes from the stable of a British family-controlled manufacturing company that have been making men's fashion accessories for UK's fashion designers.#
“We had a hard conversation with our team of 15 but they were really understanding. Each member of our team has been with us 25 years plus – so we have a very close relationship with them all. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is a real lifeline to us and we completed our application for the scheme earlier this week. As we pay our business rates in full, we are above the threshold for the Small Business £10k grant (for people who pay little or no rates). As manufacturers, we are not eligible for the £25k (up to) grant for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses who were specifically told to close by the government,” Tyler said in a UKFT press release.
“Sadly, Birmingham City Council have only granted us a two-month business rates holiday and yet I know of many other councils that have given businesses three months. On the suggestion of the UKFT’s director of international business development Paul Alger, I recently wrote to the council to raise my concerns. They were very responsive and informed me that they do have a proposal to deliver more financial support to SMEs but that they are awaiting authorisation from government,” he added.
Speaking about their online business Tyler said, “Our online store is open and we have a promotion of 30 per cent off all orders which will be dispatched when we re-open and we’re donating £3 per purchase to the Intensive Care Society, which has been a nice positive thing but is nowhere near enough to survive.”
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