Mataura licensing trust in survival mode, says manager

The Mataura Licensing Trust is in ‘‘survival mode’’ after flooding and the Covid-19 pandemic halved its profits in the past seven weeks.

The trust operates 10 hotels and two standalone bottle stores across the Gore District, West Otago and rural Southland, and all profits from hospitality sales were redirected into providing essential facilities for the region and financial support for community projects.

But during level 4 of the Covid-19 lockdown, the trust’s establishments were closed and its bottle stores operated on reduced hours.

In a letter to the Gore District Council, dated May 14, trust general manager Mark Paterson said: ‘‘Our income has more than halved over the last seven weeks . . .

‘‘Without the Government’s wage subsidy, we would be faced with the same difficult decisions that both GDC [Gore District Council] and ILT [Invercargill Licensing Trust] have faced regarding closures and redundancies.’’

The letter will be tabled at an extraordinary council meeting today, at which the council’s budgets in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic will be discussed.

In the letter, Paterson said The Trusts Community Foundation was ‘‘without funds and will take many months to get to the point where they will be able to build up enough funds to distribute money back to the community’’.

‘‘Even when this occurs, the MLT will compete with other society contributors for the scraps,’’ Paterson said.