New owner at Palmerston North restaurant
A Palmerston North restaurant is making a new start with a new owner, but its family legacy will remain.
Reuben and Lynne Leung Wai built Bethany’s Restaurant into a well-respected business over the past eight years before it ran into financial trouble earlier this year.
Reuben Leung Wai said in July that they were gutted to put the restaurant up for sale in a voluntary liquidation after the business racked up more than $700,000 in debt.
The restaurant was named after the couple’s eldest daughter, who died two days before her 12th birthday in 2005, following an eight-month battle with bone cancer.
New owner Ray Want said he saw a lot of potential in Bethany’s and wanted to build on the solid foundation the Leung Wais had laid.
Want said he did not plan to rename the business, out of respect for the previous owners and the restaurant’s regular customers.
‘‘I’m thinking about upgrading the restaurant, but just changing everything is not fair to the longtime customers.’’
He planned to make a series of small improvements over a six- to 12-month period, starting with a kitchen upgrade early next year.
Liquidation Management Ltd kept the restaurant open during the liquidation and retained most of its 20 staff for the five months until it sold.
Want said he planned to keep all of the restaurant’s current staff members.
Liquidator Imran Kamal said keeping Bethany’s open proved it was still a viable business, as it had taken in an average of $20,000 a week in revenue.
If Bethany’s had closed down while under liquidation, the sale of its assets would have been a fraction of what Kamal managed to share out to creditors post-sale, he said.