UKC

Climbing centres have been hit hard by the current climate and customers generously unfreezing their memberships is a sign of how important the centres are within climbing communities across the country. Most centres have gone about this with humbleness and transparency, offering members the option, if they’re financially able, to continue paying memberships so that the centres might still be there when this is all over. However, it has recently come to the attention of myself and a number of others in the Manchester climbing community that MCC’s moral compass seems to have gone astray.

After repeatedly claiming on social media that all memberships will go directly to staff, we now know this not to be the case. Staff are now receiving 80% furlough from the government and nothing more. Where then, is all this money going? If MCC would have been truthful from the start and stated that the memberships would go towards overheads or refurbishments, I’m sure it would have left a much less bitter taste in the mouths of those still paying.

This is the second time in this pandemic that the centre has taken a wrong turn, with them previously sacking all of their zero hour contract staff along with the manager until the furlough was announced. When will this centre stop taking their staff and more importantly their paying customers for granted? In these unprecedented times there has been enough deceit and corruption without climbing centres getting in on the act. #climbingculturecommunity

I am posting this anonymously as I don’t wish to engage in a personal confrontation but simply to present the facts to the wider climbing community.

They were not the only ones that did that. Do you have inside knowledge about their finances to know whether they could afford to pay wages while shut without the furlough in place? If not, why would you single them out for that? Percy announced in here that The Works had to do the same, I'm pretty sure it's not an easy decision to make.

Big Rock did ask if people would continue their membership and I did, but they didn't say where it would go.  This was probably a better, more honest strategy giving them the flexibility.

I've just seen it on the sort of basis that if I injured myself and needed a couple of months off (as indeed happened in the latter part of last year) I wouldn't bother cancelling it.

I think you’ve missed the point slightly. I understand that other centres made the difficult (presumptive and selfish?) step to lay off all their staff but my main gripe is that they said the membership would go ‘directly to staff’ and this simply isn’t true.

To all our MCC customers

I hope you and your families are all safe and healthy through this COVID-19 crisis.

Seven weeks since we closed the climbing centres on Tuesday 17th March, I wanted to thank you for your incredible generosity in continuing to support your climbing centre and explain how we have used your money to ensure the continued operation of the climbing centre.

Our main concern at the time of the closure was how we would be able to keep paying the salaries of our 90 employees across our 3 sites, together with the on-going costs of the sites. Faced with no source of income as the centres were closed, this was a huge concern. To our great relief, several days after the closure of our centres, the Government announced the Furlough scheme, which has meant that we have been able to put all 86 of our operational staff on Furlough until we are able to reopen the centres. We have been paying their wages since that time at the Government supported reduced rate of 80%, but at the time I write to you, we have not received any repayment from the Government. We anticipate that we will receive these refunds in the coming days. Our operational staff are critical in ensuring that you and all our customers have a great climbing experience when you visit your climbing centre and we are extremely grateful that we will receive support from the Government allowing us to keep them in the business for when we re-open. We are also very grateful for your support in contributing to bridging the cashflow gap in paying salaries.

Our operational staff are not the only members of our team who are critical in running the centres, we have a number of support staff who make a valuable contribution but you who you may never have met. We were unable to put all of these staff on Furlough as there is still a significant amount of work that is continuing which is critical to the continued operation of the business, including calculating and paying salaries, reclaiming the Furlough funds from the government, communications and maintaining our social media presence, arranging refunds for forward bookings, looking after the security of our sites, paying suppliers and liaising with the banks and other funders to ensure we have sufficient funds to continue trading. Your support has also been used to pay the salaries of people not on Furlough and towards our on-going costs.

In all honesty, I can say that these last seven weeks have been the most difficult time in the history of our climbing centres. We have had to deal with many unanticipated challenges, however through it all we have been reassured by the amazing climbing community around us: those of you who have been able to continue to support us financially through generously continuing your memberships or purchasing gift vouchers for future use; those customers with forward bookings who have kindly agreed to move the booking to a future date rather than receive a refund now; and those people who have supported us through positive messages and offers of help. In addition, we remember that we are dealing with a business challenge which whilst important to us, pales into insignificance compared to the life-threatening challenges that some are facing as a result of the COVID19 crisis.

We are anxious to see the world return to some kind of normal, so that we can re-open, welcoming all our great employees and wonderful customers back to enjoy our amazing centres. We are also realistic that the new ‘normal’ will be very different from the world we knew before COVID19 and that it is our responsibility to provide a safe environment for people to work and climb in. We are working through what this means for the climbing experience and will continue to keep you updated.

Finally, I wanted to thank-you again for your incredible generosity in having supported your climbing centre during this period. We don’t know when we will be able to re-open, so if you do wish to amend your membership in this next period before we re-open please do via our MCC members page.

Until we do re-open, keep safe, keep in touch with us and stay at home.

John Dunne
CEO & Founder of Climbing Centre Group ltd

Thank you for the prompt response. I understand the centre has more staff than just the instructors, however, when you posted to social media, it comes across as ‘staff’ and ‘instructors’ being synonymous. You knew this and are not giving any of the instructors the money you promised on social media. Rather than recycling an email sent to customers earlier filled with faux sincere verbatim, why not address my earlier comment? Why did you lie on social media and why don’t you correct your posts? As I mentioned, I’m sure people would have been happy to pay if you’d simply said ‘overheads’ rather than claiming something you knew to be false.

Instructors are normally self employed and thus not furloughable, aren't they?

On the assumption that you have been kicked in the nads by the enforced closure of your main client / employer, I'd just say I feel your pain (currently not getting any work myself) but calling MCC a liar is not going to do your cause any favours. If you continue in that vein I'd give this thread a lifespan of about 10 minutes

Most wall instructors tend to be on some form of contract rather than self employed. (Not my dislike on your reply btw!)

I don't think you have grounds to call him a liar.  

No one knew the furlough scheme was going to happen before it was announced.

The furlough money is claimed back and they still have to pay their staff while they wait to reclaim the money.  

I also think if you are going to call someone a liar it is cowardly to do so anonymously.