One of the most common occurrences in the life of a business reporter is associations for different industries whining and complaining about how they are getting the short end of the stick, and that the government is not doing enough for them. Sometimes, they have a point. More often than not, it comes at times when the government can actually do very little and the sluggish and backwards industry has done little to prepare for such a scenario.
And as businesses have experienced growing and unprecedented closures and crises in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the complaining has only grown. From textiles, to restaurants, the expectation is that the government must bail them out or let them operate, the consequences notwithstanding.
One of the most vocal industries in this regard has been the wedding industry. Internationally, the wedding industrial complex is a $70 billion business sector comprising all the dressmakers, florists, reception halls, event planners, photographers, caterers, limo firms, DJs, bands, and jewelry designers that many people now consider necessary expenses for a wedding.
However, just as the coronavirus is changing how the world works and people think in other sectors, it is also affecting how people get married. In the beginning of the pandemic, a number of couples shifted their nuptials online over Zoom. And even in Pakistan, the trend of small weddings at home with smaller crowds. This trend may just last.
When large events become small events, the industries around them have to change. So when the volume of work in the wedding industry decreases or goes down in scale, the way designers, florists, and makeup artists react is to rebrand and do work that may not have as much demand, but has a higher markup.
But within the wedding industry, one segment that can do very little are the owners of wedding halls. In the United States and other Western countries, weddings take place at locations that often double as resorts and have other functions. In Pakistan, buying a plot of land and building a gaudy structure on it is considered a steady investment – until something like a pandemic happens. Then, the owners begin to cry foul. This is their lament.
They’re still not banned
Initially, when Pakistan was going through the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, everything was shut down, and the wedding halls went with it. But since the reopening, despite repeated calls for social distancing to be followed, halls have had the opportunity to remain open, and people have continued to get married. Despite this, wedding hall owners have already made their reservations known in advance, in case the second wave of the virus remains uncontrolled.
The National Command and Control Center (NCOC) for Covid-19 Prevention in Pakistan has issued Safety Guidelines (SOPs) for weddings and other celebrations in major cities over the past week. Under them, from November 20, there will be a complete ban on indoor gatherings and this will be applicable in all major cities including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Faisalabad.
According to the NCOC, only outdoor weddings and other celebrations will be allowed and even in an outdoor wedding, no more than 300 people will be able to get together. Everyone is told to wear a mask and keep a distance of at least six feet to prevent the spread of the virus. Tents must be ventilated if used, while tents with closed marquee designs will not allow for wedding ceremonies. Other instructions include checking the temperature of all guests, distributing lunch boxes instead of buffets, and ensuring the availability of soap or sanitizer for hand washing. Parents and organizers of the bride and groom have been asked to distribute masks at the entrance. Similarly, it is obligatory to abstain from such traditions as shaking hands and embracing. According to the NCOC, the hours of the ceremony cannot exceed two hours and in any case, they will be required to end by 10 pm.
These guidelines are a source of frustration for those who have booked wedding halls and other arrangements in view of the declining Covid-19 cases, and wedding hall owners are not happy with these instructions. For them, the immediacy of business defeats the possible long term repercussions of not being careful.
Fawad Shabbir, who owns Deans Catering Services in Lahore, is also worried about the re-closing of the wedding halls. Speaking to Profit, he said that the closure of wedding halls and a large business connected to them has already been closed for about five months during the lockdown, causing them irreparable damage.
“At wedding events, there are many daily wage workers that are involved in the process. A lot of people feed their families with the leftovers from the wedding. Yes, we are treating this like a business because weddings have become a business over the years,” he says. “Marriages that used to take place in homes began to take place in wedding halls. Due to the wedding halls, the burden on the family has been reduced, so this trend has become a convenience and a business over time.
As Fawad explains, the wedding business has changed drastically. Home events are far and few in between, and an entire litany of industries and services have grown around weddings. Because of this, people ended up investing heavily in setting aside their cinema halls, bungalows and plots for wedding ceremonies, and later joined it in a number of ancillary businesses.
“As time changed, new trends began to be used to decorate weddings and entertain guests. Then the photographer’s job was to bring life to every memory of this event. The bride and groom had a separate session and the price of this session was also decided separately. Similarly, when it came to food, many dishes were reduced to one dish. Chefs also began to gain popularity in a race to make new food and after the wedding, the chef and the wedding meal also became an important topic. Thus many businesses became associated with one marriage.”
The damage
Fawad further said that then, all of a sudden, Covid-19 shook the whole economy. [restrict paid=”true”] “We are a developing country. Our problems are different from those of developed countries. If their economy is shaken, then a tsunami has hit us. Gradually we were forced to reopen businesses to keep our economy afloat but even then, partial action took place. Therefore, now all those involved in the business of weddings are protesting that our business should be considered as our job,” he says. For Fawad and other wedding hall owners, the primary demand is that the government should bring them into the consultation process and that they be given a seat on the table.
Asim Amin, who is the owner of a marriage hall, said that the number of registered marriage halls in Punjab at present is around 18,000 to 20,000, with dozens of people constant employees of these halls, and hundreds indirectly employed because of the hall. While the industry was closed for six months due to Covid-19, most of these people faced dire economic hardships, and many have sunk deep into debt.
“Our businesses were allowed to reopen by the government in September. When the wedding halls closed in March, it was the peak wedding season. Many people paid in advance for bookings for weddings in March but when everything was closed, these people lost all their money,” he says.
“The tune of simplicity is also being sung by the government and if you look at the wedding hall, the wedding is simply celebrated here in the form of a one-dish menu anyway. The business of wedding halls is not very complicated. Meal rates are calculated based on the number of people, and overall, wedding halls do not generate much revenue. For example, if a wedding hall hosts more than ten weddings in a month, it saves around half a million rupees.”
Once again, the same issue is arising. Wedding halls have booked future events again, but with another lockdown imminent, they will once again have advances that they have spent, and customers at their doors demanding that the money be returned. Of course, this is bad planning on the part of the wedding hall owners. But it also leaves a question, while the people deserve a refund, how can the wedding halls be expected to pay back when they are not allowed to conduct their business?
Other than the economic impact, of course, is the fact that weddings are what are known as ‘super spreader’ events. The coronavirus is a real threat, but wedding hall owners are unhappy with the social distancing guidelines that the government has issued. According to them, they are too difficult to implement and need to be revised, especially since their customers were unwilling to follow the guidelines. And actions like government ministers showing up maskless to huge weddings between two large business families only adds fuel to the fire.
Malik further informed Profit that at least two Kanals of land and a multi-storey building are required for marriage halls. “Only one hall can be built on a space of less than two kanals. Wedding halls have also been established on plots of ten marlas in small areas of the city but at least two kanals of space is required if proper business is to be done in which three to four halls can be built, kitchen, parking area and booking office can also be established.”
“Since the land for wedding halls has to be commercial, so in big cities, as property prices are very high, the area of two kanals is between RS 30 million to RS 50 million as per location. After that, if the cost of construction is estimated, the cost of per square feet is RS 4,000 and that is, between RS 15 million to 20 million. Then there is the cost of decorating the hall, which costs a lot of money on lights, false ceilings, carpets, chairs, tables. At least four waiters are also required for a hall and their monthly salary is at least RS 18,000 per waiter. In total, starting a medium-sized business requires an investment of between RS 50 to 60 million.”
“In terms of investment, this business can make a good profit because a large investment has to be made only once. Then if the marketing strategy, food quality and rates are appropriate then the business shines. If the wedding halls arrange full wedding ceremonies during the season, they can earn up to half a million rupees a month because this business is directly related to the wedding season which is from October to April every year, good money is made in just these months. For the rest of the year, bookings for weddings, birthdays or other events are rare.”
The association
All businesses have associations. These are the groups that complain about their joint grievances. For wedding hall owners in Punjab, there is the Punjab Marriage Halls Owners Association, and their President, Mian Ilyas, believes that wedding halls are actually a better alternative to open air weddings.
“The government should realize that wedding halls are really convenient. People entering and exiting can be easily monitored, the temperature is controlled and ventilation can be controlled. Now if there is rain or wind in the open space during the wedding, the whole setup is shattered and the event has to be closed immediately,” Ilias concluded.”
“Since the government announced open-air marriages, the rates for outdoor marquees have tripled. First of all, there are not enough people across the province involved in the outdoor marquee business to meet the wedding capacity, which has resulted in higher rates. Setting up outdoor marquees is out of the reach of the common man because if you invite a hundred people as guests to a wedding, the cost in the marriage hall would be RS 200,000, so the same rate has reached RS 700,000 to 800,000 in open air marquee.”
This, of course, has meant that fewer people can afford to get married now. Of course, the obvious response to that is that perhaps a wedding can wait in the face of a global pandemic that has brought the world to its knees. But it is once again a question of the economy versus people’s health, and as the president Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries (LCCI), Mian Tariq Misbah, explains, the marriage hall sector contributes significantly to Pakistan’s GDP.
“More than 50 industries are directly related with the business of wedding halls including poultry, rice, meat, cooking oil, flour, crockery, clothing, footwear, cosmetics, decoration, furniture, electronics/lighting, photography, weddings cards and jewellery. If this business is closed, it will have a big impact on all these sectors,” he says.
“About 20 per cent of the revenue of the food industry in Punjab comes from the business of marriage halls, so the government should reconsider its decision to close wedding halls from November 20. The recent lockdown and consequent economic slowdown has had a negative impact on the marriage halls sector. The wedding hall industry has suffered a lot due to the lockdown that has been going on for the last six months and now they should be allowed to operate. The marriage halls sector should also be exempted from property taxes for at least one year and they should be exempted from PRA’s (Punjab Revenue Authority) sales tax for 2 years,” he said.
However, on the other hand, the opinion of a senior official of the Department of Primary and Secondary Healthcare Punjab is very different. On the condition of anonymity he informed, “In the current situation, whether the wedding ceremony is held in the open or in the open, it is very dangerous. People should make the wedding ceremony as simple as possible in the current situation and keep the celebration later one day when the situation improves.”
“Our teams surveyed the wedding halls during the second wave of Covid-19 and concluded that SOPs could not be implemented in a ceremony held at the wedding hall. On the one hand, this place is closed and if any infected person joins the wedding ceremony, they can infect everyone because the wedding ceremony has to continue for two to three hours.”
The Provincial Minister of Punjab for industries, commerce and investment Mian Aslam Iqbal said, “I have assured the wedding hall owners that I will take up the matter again at the NCOC meeting and work out a workable formula for wedding halls and marquees in consultation with stakeholders. In a recent meeting with Marriage Halls Associations, we also considered a proposal to provide disposable food in marriage halls and a ventilation system in marquees. The country is currently facing a second wave of Covid-19 and we want the people to be safe and to ensure implementation of SOPs as responsible citizens.” [/restrict]
