The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on local businesses, most of whom have had to close for months.

Retailers have been forced to completely shut their doors, with just deliveries possible, while restaurants, cafés and pubs have only been allowed to sell food and drink to take away.

Those shops which have been able to stay open, including food stores and pharmacies, have also had to adapt by putting in social-distancing measures and maintaining a high level of hygiene in their stores to keep people safe.

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Reading’s strong scene of independent companies has not only found ingenious ways to adapt to the situation, but also supported key workers in the town and even across the UK, helping the country to fight the virus.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has previously reported on the struggles faced by a new bar and community space in east Reading, a local catering company donating 3,000+ coronavirus meals to key workers and several restaurants, including Clay's Hyderabadi, providing one hundred meals a day for vulnerable people in Whitley – to name just a few examples.

But we wanted to do even more to highlight the local efforts.

This is the first in a series speaking to local businesses to find out about their experience during the lockdown, what they’ve done to keep their business going, how they’ve played their part in helping the community and how they are now adapting their business to a changed world.

First up, we spoke to Double-Barrelled, a brewery and taproom.

'Big change and scary time'

Double-Barrelled Brewery is a brewery with onsite taproom on Portman Road, Reading.

Owned by local couple, Mike and Luci Clayton-Jones, who live in Caversham, the brewery opened at the end of 2018.

Ms Clayton-Jones said the business has been switched around completely during the lockdown to become online only.

Previously, Double-Barrelled would supply pubs, bars and bottle shop across the country, and they said the transformation was “a big change and a very scary time”.

They opened the online shop just after lockdown, and said they were “amazed with the initial support”.

They originally had decided to stop brewing and shut down all production, but thanks to local support they started brewing again.

'We felt a bit useless initially'

Double-Barrelled has released a beer called Applause, brewed as a thank you to NHS, care & key workers, which donated £1 from every can purchased to NHS Charities Together.

The brewery has also been collecting food-bank donations from customers’ houses when it delivers their beer, after hearing that donations were down due people staying in and having less access to food.

Ms Clayton-Jones said: “We felt a bit useless initially just been here making beer, so it was good to help in the way that we could.

The company has been helped by the furlough scheme and the new small business bounce back loan, but due to its status as half hospitality and half manufacturing it has found it hard to get small business grant funding.

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Some of the biggest challenges have been reducing its team to ensure safety and doing everything with just wo people working, including producing beer, packaging 5,000 cans at a time and delivery.

At the same time, they have been panicking about finances and how to move forward.

Ms Clayton-Jones said they had heaps of full kegs with nowhere to sell them to and “a lot of beer has sadly had to go down the drain”.

She said: “The stresses seem very similar to other businesses in our position, and the uncertainty only continues.”

‘Our newest customers’ – Positive news

But she added: “On a positive side of our newest customers throughout the lockdown have been another local indie Fidget & Bob, over in Kennet Island, who started stocking our beers as a result of the lockdown.

“They are now a booming trade customer for us, so it’s great that together we can support both our business and their indie business.

“More recently, the Fox & Hounds in Caversham, since they have opened up for takeaway beer, have been going through tremendous amounts of our local lager, Ding, so much so, we’ve now sold out of the current batch.

“At the start of lockdown, we weren’t sure how we were going to survive this at all, so it’s great to be here still, and just about be able to start to look to the future again.”