Hospo sector cashes in on Christmas time
Some Bay of Plenty catering companies are busier than ever, and employees are clocking up 16-hour days to keep up with demand, as businesses host Christmas parties and other activities.
Bookings are also rolling in at local bars and restaurants, some of which are struggling to find staff to work the busy period.
The news comes as a report from the Restaurant Association shows 80 per cent of 30 Bay members surveyed said they had experienced corporate Christmas party cancellations.
But Ryan Gregorash said his Rotorua business, Stolen Bike Catering, had been the busiest in six years.
“This past Saturday, we had seven functions going and we’re fully booked all the way through until Christmas . . . and we’re still getting inquiries.”
Gregorash, who also owns Matai Restaurant at the Regal Palms Resort Rotorua, said the restaurant had also been busy with Christmas bookings.
“In the past seven weeks every Friday and Saturday has been our busiest and it’s building.”
Usually, Gregorash said his catering business opened on Christmas Day but this year would be the first time it would close on December 25. It would also be the first time one of his staff members had had Christmas Day off in “decades”, he said.
The owner of Lemongrass Catering Company in Tauranga, Belinda Lombard, said the business was “flat tack”.
“We’ve blocked days out now because we can’t take on any more.”
Lombard said most of the big corporate Christmas events had been pre-booked and they had catered for functions with asmanyas 230 people.
“I’m feeling pretty blessed. Our staff are working like crazy.”
To cater for the demand, Lombard said she had been clocking up 16-hour days. Since Covid-19 lockdown, she
said, “even if there was a whiff of Covid” her business would get cancellations.
Lombard said the lockdown “took absolutely everything out of us”.
“But things have come back a lot faster than we thought it would.”
Christmas functions were important to help the hospitality industry recover, Lombard said. “We 100 per cent need it. Everybody has been hit hard.”
A Restaurant Association survey showed of the 30 Bay businesses that responded, 80 per cent said they had experienced corporate Christmas party cancellations.
A total of 54.55 per cent said their Christmas function bookings were worse than normal, while 36.36 said their festive bookings were about the same and 9 per cent said they were better than normal.
Restaurant Association New Zealand chief executive Marisa Bidois said the Christmas period was “crucial to our industry”.
“For many, this makes up for the quieter times of the year.”
Hospitality New Zealand Bay of Plenty branch president Reg Hennessy, who also owns Hennessy’s Irish Bar in Rotorua, said thankfully this year Christmas bookings were “way up” on last year.
“I believe this is mainly due to a