HS Helsinki | “My sin was that I tried” – A bankrupt restaurateur tells how the pandemic destroyed the entire business

Corona pandemic in the spring and winter of 2023, it already feels like a thing of the past, a nightmare that can be forgotten.

It is easy to forget that the pandemic has long traces. Three years after the start of the crisis, Corona is still wreaking havoc, both health-wise and financially.

One of the last financial victims of the corona has been the Helsinki-based restaurant company Friends at Work, which was declared bankrupt on February 20.

The company had two bars along the Sörnäinen beach promenade: the restaurant ship Merikerho and Leblon.

Restaurateur Tapio Mäkelä has been visiting Merikerho for a long time. He walks along the sloping deck and looks around.

The ice has pushed the ship sideways. It has snowed on the tables and benches on the terrace.

Ashtrays lie on the floor, and a lone bottle of tentacles peeks out from the roof of the ship’s cabin.

“A young man has apparently broken in here to party,” says Mäkelä.

Mäkelä is no longer the captain of this ship, but a bankrupt entrepreneur.

Mäkelä talks about his fate in a surprisingly calm and analytical manner, even though it’s about the end of his company, his debts and the violent alley-oops he got into as an entrepreneur.

“I hope that Merikerho and Leblon will be bought by entities that pay enough for the bankruptcy estate. Otherwise, I can end up personally bankrupt.”

Hilly is a long-time restaurant entrepreneur whose Mbar restaurant located in Lasipalatsi was a success. Mbar had to give way to the Amos Rex museum in 2015.

Mäkelä had already thought about changing fields, because in addition to his career as a restaurateur, he also worked as a journalist and in media research and art.

Then an advertisement for a 60-meter cargo ship caught my eye. The idea was born to establish a restaurant that could be transported when necessary to wherever the heartbeat of the city would move.

The restaurant ship Merikerho was opened in the summer of 2017. Its deck terrace could accommodate 355 customers, and gigs and events were organized in the hold’s 198-person club rooms.

When the corona pandemic hit Finland in March 2020, Mäkelä took the matter seriously.

He was among the first restaurateurs to acquire hand sanitizers and strive to prevent infections.

“We succeeded in that, because according to official data, there was no infection at Merikerho during the entire pandemic.”

Soon, however, the restaurants were closed by government order. There was no more money coming into the cash register, but the expenses were running.

In June 2020, restaurants could be kept open again with limited opening hours, and Mäkelä decided to try even harder to offset the losses.

When the Leblon restaurant next to Merikerho had gone bankrupt, he bought the bankruptcy estate and continued the restaurant’s operation.

In retrospect, it’s easy to accuse Mäkelä of excessive optimism, but at the time, no one imagined that the corona epidemic would continue for two years.

Leblon supplemented Merikerkoha. There, the most popular classes were in the early evening and at Merikerho until late at night.

“Corona restrictions hit Merikerho particularly hard, because people only came to Merikerho between nine and ten. The bar had to be closed just when the customers started having fun.”

Mäkelä dared to buy also because in the early stages of the corona crisis, support was promised for rehiring staff after the lockdown.

However, Mäkelä didn’t get the money either. When personnel costs were reimbursed, February 2020 was taken as the reference point.

However, Merikerho was a summer season restaurant, so there was no staff in February except for the weekend clubs.

State power began to compensate the losses of the restaurants by giving corona support. The condition of the support was that the company’s turnover had to have decreased by at least 30 percent compared to the level of 2019 due to the pandemic.

The problem was that Mäkelä had connected Leblon to the same company as Merikerho. In 2019, there had been one restaurant with the same Y code, but in 2020 there were two.

With Merikerho’s losses, the 30 percent loss condition would have been fulfilled, but not with the two restaurants.

Mäkelä says that he lost 1.6 or 2.2 million euros in VAT-free turnover in Merikerho and Leblon due to the corona restrictions, depending on whether the year 2019 or 2018 is compared. The summer of the latter was warmer, so the terrace produced better.

Korona support Friends at Work finally received a total of 32,000 euros.

“My sin was that I tried. If I had kept the restaurant closed and I hadn’t bought Leblon, the subsidies would have been in a completely different category. The company would still be standing.”

Hilly says that he made his decisions without sufficient information about what the subsidies would be and who they would apply to. The authorities never contacted him.

“We did not receive any advice, phone calls or letters. You had to try to dig out the information yourself from the media and websites,” says Mäkelä.

“Bigger restaurant operators were in a better position. They sat at the conference tables, received information and knew how to apply for subsidies.”

Mäkelä’s accusing finger also points in the government’s direction.

When the coronavirus spread in Finland, the Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee took a position on the possible closing of restaurants. According to it, the forced closure could be done if the losses of the restaurants were compensated in a reasonable way.

For Mäkela, the committee’s statement means nothing. In his opinion, he has not received reasonable compensation, but he cannot complain about it either.

“Since the decision to close was made by the government, and not by the regional administrative authority, there is no official way to complain. I am of the opinion that it was meant to be that way,” says Mäkelä.

“I consider the activity to be a violation of my constitutional rights. Finland lacks a constitutional court that could deal with such matters.”

Pandemic changed society and working life in many different ways.

Mäkelä got to feel it when he tried to get additional income by setting up a restaurant at Helsinki Central Station in the summer of 2021.

The name of the place was Purtava, and it offered higher quality food portions and small-brewery beers. However, the customer base in the center of Helsinki was not the same after the pandemic.

“Office workers and experts had stayed at home to work remotely. The people who came to the center were mostly doing work, and Purtava’s selection didn’t interest them enough,” says Mäkelä.

According to Mäkelä, Purtava was founded because without year-round opening, his company would not have enough employees for the summer season alone due to the pandemic.

“The investment was a clear mistake on our part.”

Nightlife also changed in restaurants focusing on the night hours. They were reached even later and often “through the park”, i.e. having taken solid foundations.

The club was often just a stage for outdoor parties, which were organized especially during the corona period on beaches, forests, and industrial buildings. It was visible in restaurant sales.

“Purchasing drinks decreased, especially in music venues like Merikerho. I have also heard that message from other entrepreneurs.”

In 2022, the corona restrictions were finally lifted. Mäkelä expected that the summer income would bring relief to the predicament. Payment failures had already occurred, and the debt grew.

Unfortunately for Mäkelä, June was cold, and customers did not come to the terraces to cool off. The summer season was short, and the restaurateur began to realize that the situation was getting out of hand.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine and inflation were also reflected in the price increase of purchased alcohol, wages and waste management.

Mäkelä’s restaurants had the same number of customers at their best as before the corona virus, but expenses increased and income decreased.

Shortage of manpower has been one of the negative effects of corona on the restaurant industry. Many of Mäkelä’s regular employees also decided to change fields or train for a new profession.

“Due to the labor shortage, we had to limit the opening hours and keep some of the serving points closed. It was almost impossible to get cooks, or they had to be paid a much higher salary than before,” says Mäkelä.

When no workers could be found, the restaurateur made round-the-clock days himself.

“For four weekends, I came early in the morning to receive loads, then I went behind the bar counter and at night I went to the club shift. I slept three hours a night,” Mäkelä recalls.

Mäkelä was away from his restaurant for only two days during the whole summer. However, on the second day spent at the cottage with the family, he worked remotely.

“In the fall, the power went out, I couldn’t take it anymore. I realized that this is no longer possible.”

Tapio Mäkelä has devoted most of his adult life to his restaurants. Now they are gone.

What can a bankrupt restaurateur over 50 years old do?

“You just have to push forward,” says Mäkelä calmly.

He begins to tell about his plans, the condition for their implementation is that the bankruptcy estate receives an amount of money that offsets the debts from the sale of the restaurants.

After all, Mäkelä has a dream. He has been renovating a hundred-year-old house in Uusimaa for years, among his other works.

“It should become a residency center for art and research and a party space,” says Mäkelä.

“My love for art and music won’t go away, but business operations in the restaurant industry came to an end.”

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