FOR someone who has become used to closing down her cafes quickly on government orders, Helena Hudson is upbeat about the future of hospitality.

She is founder and managing director of the Real Eating Company, the independent chain whose seven sites include a popular spot in Bournemouth’s Yelverton Road.

“I don’t know if it’s partly wishful thinking – I don’t think so – but I’m one of these people that thinks that we’re going to do well when things return to normal,” she says.

“I don’t want to say exactly when, but I’d like to think by the summer when we’ve fully reopened, the vaccines have pretty much rolled out and we can abandon the one-metre spacing so we can get more covers back in and the screens have gone, I feel that it’s going to come back in quite a meaningful way.”

While successive lockdowns have been tough, she has seized some opportunities.

She has been negotiating a move to bigger premises in Bournemouth, where there used to be a second Real Eating Company venue inside the now-closed Steamer Trading Company store.

“I can’t tell you where but it’s somewhere much more centrally located, not very far away from where we are," she says.

"Nothing is foregone conclusion at the moment, there are lots of barriers to get over, but I’m quite an experienced operator and I think all of that comes into play. We’re small enough to be quite fast and adapt and take advantage of deals maybe much more quickly than bigger companies can.”

That adaptability is one reason Real Eating Company is set to open a venue in Cambridge and went ahead last year with plans to open in Chelsea’s Kings Road.

Bournemouth cafe manager Fon Potchana was sent to London to show the staff what the company culture was all about.

“The people we employed were all ex-Pret people, so very well trained, but I said ‘We need the Real Eating Company personality here’. I was like, ‘Fon's the Real Eating Company DNA, just watch how she is with customers’.”

After three lockdowns, the business has learned how to open and close its venues at short notice. The latest closures came when cafes had stocked up for two Christmas weeks when deliveries would be irregular.

“It’s time, it’s resource, it’s bandwidth to manage all these things – so in one way we’ve adapted to this opening and closing thing, but in another way it’s damaging to the business and damaging to the time we can spend on looking forward," she says.

"It’s just constantly pulling us back.”

The Bournemouth site was badly knocked by the Covid restrictions.

“Bournemouth was one of the most challenging early on. It had a fantastic summer, loads of staycationers were there, but when we got into September, Bournemouth didn’t do that well and it didn’t do well in December.

"We just decided at that point to close it until the restrictions went back and the reason we did that in Bournemouth and we didn’t do it everywhere else was footfall," she says.

Even allowing for the absence of office workers, she says, the town “fell flat on its face”. “There’s not enough here to encourage people into town, to potter, to shop, to go and have a meal or whatever it is," she adds.

Yet she believes good times may be on the way for the right businesses. “I’m taking a sort of glass half full approach because I think with all this destruction of business, I guess there are also a lot of opportunities out there for smaller businesses that have kept good control of their finances, have good relationships with the majority of their suppliers and landlords.

"If we can come out the other side of this, which we can, we can get really good property deals, particularly, if it’s looking highly likely the government will do something on business rates again and also possibly VAT as well.”

After a year of restrictions, she believes there is a big pent-up demand for eating out.

“Fundamentally we’re social creatures. We need that and I think we’ve felt it even more with this lockdown, when basic things we took for granted have been taken away.

“As far as hospitality is concerned and retail, it’s not all about online. People want to be out and about. And I think with Bournemouth clearly it will take some time to get back on its feet but I think it will come back bigger and better.”