Bottle store sales boost ILT profits
Covid-19 could not stop the Invercargill Licensing Trust’s retail bottle store sales increasing by $2.7 million, or 8.3 per cent, in the year ending March 28 – but the trust’s total sales were down $9.8m.
Trust chief executive Chris Ramsay’s report to the board’s open meeting on April 29 highlights bottle store sales as a winner for the organisation in the year of the pandemic.
Total bottle store sales for the year ending March 31, 2020, were $32.8 million, and for the year ending March, 31, 2021, were $35.5m. The trust had retained its trading rights throughout all alert levels which allowed its stores to meet the high demand during lockdown and beyond.
Despite this, the trust’s total sales for the 52-week period to the end of March were down on the same period last year by $9.8m, or 10.6 per cent.
Totals sales for the year ending March 31, 2021, were $82.5m, down from $92.3m for the year ending March 31, 2020.
Most of the reduction was due to Covid-19 lockdown, from March 25, 2020 through to April 27, and subsequent alert levels to May which reduced sales by just over $7m, Ramsay’s report says.
The various trading alert levels since June had resulted in businesses being reluctant to send their employees around the country which had an effect on the trust’s motel and hotel businesses.
Also, large conferences and events were essentially cancelled for the majority of this past year which has affected its motel and hotel businesses, taverns and restaurants.
The trust’s liquor distribution sales were down 25 per cent, or $6.2m from the previous year to the end of March, with most of the decease being recorded through its Central Otago distribution business which was hit hard by the loss of international tourists and Auckland lockdowns.
Ramsay also reports good progress on the new Langlands Hotel build, saying the building was beginning to “close in” and activity would begin to really intensify as the various sub trades began to mobilise.
Among the grants approved by the ILT since March 25 were $20,000 to assist with a new one-off commercial manager’s salary at Sharks Basketball Ltd; and a $255,000 grant to assist with the operation costs for grassroots amateur rugby in Invercargill for 12 months.