Calgary catering companies hit hard by lack of events

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CALGARY – Everyone relies on grocery stores and restaurant take-out services to stay fed during the pandemic, but Calgary’s catering services have been hit hard by a lack of customers.

Catering businesses are trying to stay afloat during a time of restrictions and limited interaction with one another.

“We’ve seen about a 95 per cent drop since the lockdowns began in March,” said Matthew Pierson, General Manager of An Affair To Remember.

This time of year is usually busy for caterers with holiday and corporate parties but more restrictions mean fewer events.

“The ones that we are doing, the numbers are drastically down because of the restrictions,” said Rick Luft the Owner and President of Alpine Catering. He says they’ve had to change the way they do things, moving most events into 2021 when hopefully there will be fewer restrictions.

Over at An Affair To Remember, the story is very much the same, Pierson said they’ve started new business models as well, but it’s not making much of a difference.

“Like all of the other companies we’ve tried to go to take out and revamp our services, but with the restrictions on any type of gathering … for the most part, catering services just aren’t needed,” Pierson said. “A lot of clients are still looking into 2021-2022 for their weddings which has helped a little bit.”

Both Luft and Pierson agreed they would like to see gathering restrictions lifted so that their business can return to some form of normalcy, however they also understand the importance of the restrictions in place.

“We would be prepared to do whatever it takes to better the circumstances,” said Luft.

Meanwhile, Pierson said he considers An Affair To Remember to be lucky.

“We’re able to stay afloat a little bit, we know of a large number of catering companies that have had to close their doors this year — which is unfortunate because a lot of them have been around for many years longer than we have within the city,” said Pierson.

“It’s really hard to say where the catering industry will be at the end of everything.”

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