"We Were Going to Heal First Lockdown Wounds in December" - ICR Group

Founder of ICR Group, Kakha Khazaradze, who maintains a restaurant business together with clothes and accessories stores, discusses the matters of challenges that occurred in the retail sector.

"We spoke to the business ombudsman, who said, that talks with the economic team could not take place this week and it will be held next week. The only thing we ask for is to hold a meeting quickly since everything needs to be planned. We want to maintain this process together, and not be blamed on either side. We think, that this massage will speed up the process and we will move to negotiations.  

If we won't manage COVID and economy, we will have a difficult winter, and without proper joint planning, the business will not be able to cope with it and the economy will collapse.", Kakha Khazaradze noted.

The founder of the company also added, that sales fell by 25% initially after the first lockdown and now it is decreased by 40%. According to him, the company employes 1,500 people, and 30 million GEL is contributed to the budget in the terms of taxes.

"The main problem is, that we exhausted all the resources to plan for 2021. The processes continuing with the domino principle is what I am afraid of the most. 50% of restaurants are closed after the first lockdown. Currently, 80% of them do not function. Our team maintains the restaurants which run on delivery service, but income from it is not enough for the salaries. However, this business only takes 3% part of our portfolio, which is why we do not lose hope in the retail sector and keep the part of it because of our personnel till the end of the year.", declared the founder of ICR Group.