Village pub landlord Nick Holden says he feels like he has had to 're-invent' his business every couple of days in recent weeks.

Nick and landlady Kate Ahrens have run in the Geese and Fountain in Croxton Kerrial for the past five years.

In that time, the couple have won many awards for their beer, food and accommodation, with it also becoming a Tripadvisor and CAMRA favourite, but the coronavirus pandemic and its related government-imposed restrictions have created fresh challenges.

Nick says the impact on the business began early last month when B&B bookings slumped and many bookings were also cancelled as people were concerned about being away from home, especially for non-work reasons.

Then, in mid-March, Prime Minister Boris Johnson advised people to avoid pubs and restaurants and "our normal trade disappeared overnight."

The business suddenly changed to keep customers as safe as possible, with it removing some tables, spacing out the others, supplying hand sanitiser and surface wipes on the bar and instituting a ten-point action plan with staff.

But within a few days, it was clear the situation was untenable, and then the government announced the closure of pubs and restaurants.

Nick continued: "At that point we changed our business once again, because we knew that there were people in the village who were frail, elderly or vulnerable, who might well not want to go to large supermarkets, or might not be able to get to them anyway – Croxton Kerrial is six miles from our nearest supermarket.

"So we bought a range of take-away containers and produced a completely new menu designed for take-away, and upgraded our car insurance so that we could also offer deliveries, something we'd never done before."

By this time, most of the staff were stood down, though they are still being paid, with the couple hoping this will be covered by the government's promised "job retention scheme" but they don't know any details of that yet. Either way, they are keen for them to return when its safe.

"Our delivery and collection service is continuing with the pub being genuinely a "family business" - Kate and I are working more hours than ever, and our daughter Sophie is doing all the deliveries! "

A couple of locals help with washing-up but with so few staff, this means more work all-round.

"So instead of being a pub, we're now a take-away / off-license / village shop / greengrocer / not sure what else!"

The premises now closes Mondays to allow for a rest and because its suppliers are also working flat out getting food to people. A new fishmonger has had to be found as their existing one could no longer deliver so far.

Now, the family are busy making up boxes of assorted vegetables and fruit, which can be supplemented with household products the pub would use like toilet rolls and hand sanitiser. The range extended after villagers reported difficulties getting other items elsewhere.

Nick said: "We now have flour, dried yeast, bread, milk, butter, and lots of cleaning products. And we're selling our organic wines and a wide range of beers and ciders too."

As a community gesture, when schools closed the couple offered free children's meals with take-away orders, but found little take-up as Croxton Kerrial is an affluent village.

However, with the loss of the B&B business, business turnover has more than halved. Making matters worse is the surviving take-away trade having lower margins than food and drink served in the pub, the hit to trading profit has probably been 80 per cent.

Nick continued: "And the remaining 20% is still supposed to cover all our outgoing costs, heating, electricity for the kitchens and the lights, and so on – and the rent!

"The rent is the biggest single issue, because the property company that owns our building is still insisting that we should pay the full rent (which is roughly £5,000 a month) even though we are basically shut as a pub.

"Most pubs in the UK are rented from one of six or seven big property companies, many of which used to be breweries, and only one of them so far has agreed to cancel rents while their tenants' businesses are closed."

Nick further explained: "There are lots of smaller pub owning companies, and a lot more of them have done the right thing and cancelled rent, including Leicester's brewery Everard's. But we desperately need the big companies to follow their lead.

"There's a campaign called #NoPubNoRent which is lobbying the companies directly, and also asking the government to impose a rent-free period because without it the vast majority of pubs simply will not survive to re-open for their customers.

"Our insurance companies have washed their hands of us - most pubs are insured against being forced to close for public health reasons, but the insurance companies say that only applies if one of our staff gets the virus and we are closed because of that. Closure under government instruction is not part of the policy, they say.

"We're hopeful of getting the government's grant, which is being administered by the local authority. That should enable us to pay our staff and also the suppliers who are helping to keep us going. And there is the 'job retention scheme' which should enable us to keep paying all our staff - but there's no news on how that scheme is going to work yet, so we're paying them out of our own pockets for the time being.

"If we can resolve the issue with rent, we are positive that we can get through this, and the Geese and Fountain can open its doors again as soon as it is safe for us to do so. We'll definitely be having a huge party when that happens!

"In the meantime, our take-away Sunday Lunches are proving popular (and we've got almost as many bookings for Easter Sunday as we would normally have in the pub), and fish & chips and pizzas are keeping the village fed through the week.

"We've had to do our pub quiz this month using a live video on Facebook and we've got plans to do a 'ready steady cook' type event next week with participants all getting a mystery box of veg, and having a video conference so they can compete in real time to see who comes up with the best meal!

Nick added: "It's a cliche that village pubs are the heart of their community, but in difficult times like these I think that really does prove to be true. So many people have told us that the food we've delivered has lifted their spirits as well as saved them a trip to a supermarket. And the pub Facebook page is probably busier now than it's ever been. It's good to know that what we have done has made a real difference to people's lives and helped them stay safe and stay healthy."