Bewley's management denies blame for end of historic cafes

Bewley's has rejected claims that lapses in management, or a possible failure to tackle falling standards of food, may have contributed to the demise of its historic Oriental Cafés in Dublin.

Mr Jim Corbett, managing director of the company, said: "We have not done everything right all the time. But we have always sought to maintain the highest standards."

He was responding to criticism yesterday from customers and former employees who accused the company of allowing standards to slip in recent years.

As news of the planned closure of the Grafton Street and Westmoreland Street outlets began to sink in, questions were raised about whether the company could have done more to save the historic cafés.

Mr Patrick Campbell, chairman of the Campbell Bewley Group, said it "had done everything conceivably possible to put it right".

Citing a €12 million investment in refurbishments in recent years, he said: "We've put our hands deep into our pockets. There are a lot of people who say they love Bewley's but they didn't love it enough to do the same. People complain about prices but they don't understand it costs money just to sit here."

Mr Campbell said "no one factor" was responsible for the closures, which are due to take place before Christmas, but he said the introduction of the workplace smoking ban was "one of the final nails in the coffin".

He said the ban resulted in a drop in sales of 10 per cent, adding the company had applied to Dublin City Council for permission to erect outdoor seating but the application was turned down.

He remarked: "We are, as a society, allowing ourselves to become sterile. We are going to end up with homogenous streets which don't have any character.

"In California there is nothing remotely like Bewley's. They have all their smoking bans and political correctness, and we are creating something like that. But we are also losing something else."

SIPTU, which represents just 60 of the cafés' 234 staff, is to meet management next week to discuss a severance package.

More than two-thirds of the staff are foreign nationals, and the company said it would make "every effort" to minimise the personal impact of the closures.

A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council said it had turned down permission for outdoor seating on Westmoreland Street on grounds of "pedestrian safety", and she said there was a long-standing ban on street furniture on Grafton Street.

Meanwhile, Bewley's confirmed it may remove its famous Harry Clarke stained-glass windows from Grafton Street when it closes the café. The windows, which were installed by the Bewley family in 1927, are still owned by the company, although the building has since been sold to Treasury Holdings.

While any move would be subject to planning permission, Mr Corbett said: "The last thing we want is for the windows to end up as an office backdrop or at the back of a department store. They should be preserved and retained so they can be seen by the people of Dublin." While the company said it would dispose of its leasehold interest in the listed building, it planned to exercise an option on buying back the Westmoreland Street premises, which it sold several years ago under a lease-back agreement.

Mr Corbett said the company was still open to expressions of interest in retaining a Bewley's café at either site but no offers had yet been forthcoming.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Michael Conaghan, said the council needed to "refine its approach towards landmark buildings like these", suggesting that business rates could be waived to facilitate a new venture at the twin "cathedrals of coffee-drinking".