Franklin & Sons collaboration for Mental Health Week

The collaboration will see a series of events to educate and empower the bar community in Manchester during between Monday 15 ​May until Wednesday 17 May, equipping bartenders with essential mental health tools. 

Half of all hospitality teams experience some form of negative mental health during their career according to Franklin & Sons and profit-for-purpose platform So Let’s Talk so the drinks brands has also pledged to further support accounts within the on-trade with the launch of its hospitality support fund, which provides bespoke two-hour mental health sessions for their employees and management teams. 

The Feel Good Club hosted Monday’s event and featured industry leaders, including Paddy Howley (co-founder of So Let’s Talk), Hannah Plumb (The Alchemist) and Kelly Harrison (New World Trading Company), who discussed how to “#86 the silence” on mental health in the hospitality industry. 

Live music

An industry celebration event will take place at Oast House on Tuesday (16 May) with live music provided by the online DJ and artist booking platform, Gig Pig. Live mural artist Shawn Sharpe will be creating artwork during the event, which runs from 6pm to 10pm.

While Speak In Code is the venue for Wednesday’s (17 May) lunch time events from 12pm to 2pm, which is an open event for management and owners with the panel discussion topic of ‘How the drinks industry can support trade’. 

Franklin & Sons senior brand manager James Stimson said: “Franklin & Sons are proud to be part of the movement to bring positive cultural change and support to all the remarkable people within our fantastic community.”

Bartending background

He continued: “Most of the team and I come from a bartending background so we understand some of the pressures and stresses prevalent within the hospitality industry.

“With the support from our bespoke sessions and mental health week events, we hope to help the community challenge, navigate, and alleviate the mental, physical, and financial stresses of the industry, and we are honoured to play any part we can in that.”  

So Let’s Talk’s co-founder Howley added: “Our mission is to 86 the silence. We recognised early on that the support of drinks brands would be key in that mission. Partnering with Franklin & Sons just made sense for us. We can’t wait to create more positive change together.”