Survived Covid, but selling as costs bite
A second eatery has closed in as many weeks and more have gone on sale in Nelson, as businesses reassess their operations in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
Harry’s Fish Shop shut last week, with owner Harry Morris citing rising costs, a heavy workload and a decision about whether to renew the three-year lease on the outlet in Montgomery Square.
Despite a Covid lockdown three months after he took over in December 2019, the fresh fish business ‘‘grew quite well’’, offering lunches and takeaway meals, Morris said.
But in the last year, ‘‘the cost of everything’’ had increased, with things like cooking oil and fuel for fishing boats doubling in price, he said.
He had passed on some of the costs to customers.
‘‘I tweaked the prices, and tweaked them, and then it got to the stage where pretty much my lease is up at the end of this month, and I had a new food control plan that I was going to implement . . . and that was another pretty hefty cost,’’ he said.
‘‘So I just did some sums last week and spoke to my accountant and decided that the best thing for me would be just to call it a day.
‘‘It’s just too risky, really.’’
The owner of the Liquid NZ Bar on Bridge St, Craig Lines, said he was struggling to keep up with rocketing costs after recently having to start repaying a Government loan provided at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Introduced in May 2020, the Small Business Cashflow Scheme offered small businesses, struggling with a loss of revenue due to Covid, a loan they didn’t have to start paying back for the first two years, but that was interest free if they repaid it fully within that time.
After two years, an annual interest rate of 3% applied to the remaining balance.
With customer numbers still below pre-Covid levels, and a resurgence of the virus, the situation was ‘‘grim’’, Lines said.
‘‘Everything [cost] is going up, and yet we don’t have the tourism or support from the Government that we need to survive.’’
Having to keep paying nearly $3000 a year in liquor licensing fees throughout the pandemic compounded financial difficulties arising from Covid restrictions, he said.
Nelson Hospitality Association president Ian Williams said all hospitality businesses were repaying debt of some kind as part of the Covid recovery.
‘‘It’s deferred costs on the same income, effectively,’’ the owner of The Vic Public House and Burger Culture said.
The industry had had no ‘‘sector specific support’’ through the pandemic, he said. Summer could also be ‘‘really tough’’ for some hospitality businesses due to staff shortages, as more tourists arrived and people started to go out.
The association was arranging a sector expo in Nelson, which it hoped would give operators the chance to recruit staff.
He said hospitality was still a viable industry. ‘‘People will always want to go out to eat and drink.’’
Co-owner of Yaza cafe, Kelly Malone, said their business was thriving.
The cafe was recently put up for sale because, after more than 20 years as coowner and with his children grown up, he wanted to travel. His business partner’s priorities had changed as she had just had a baby, he said.
While the pandemic had been difficult, the cafe didn’t change its opening hours or lose staff, he said.
‘‘Myself and my business partner, we took the brunt of the hit financially ourselves.
‘‘But we’ve come through, and we honestly feel stronger than ever, and turnover is just booming.’’ The cafe had always had ‘‘a good buffer with pricing’’, having ‘‘room to move up’’ and being able to absorb a certain amount before they put prices up, he said.
The outlet would remain open while they sought a buyer, he said.
The Workshop microbrewery, bar & eatery, which closed two weeks ago, was due to remain on the market until the end of this month.
Co-owner Jackie Aislabie said the outlet, put up for sale around 10 months ago, would have to be ‘‘stripped out’’ and items like the bar on-sold, if the venue didn’t sell.
Aislabie and her partner had moved back to Christchurch to be near family – first contemplating the move after having to shut the outlet’s doors for seven weeks during Covid lockdown, with no source of income, she said.
Co-owner of Jaks Island espresso bar and cafe, Jessie Maxwell, said they had strong interest from about six parties since they listed the cafe around two months ago, turning down an offer made a week after they went on the market.
She and her business partner were ‘‘looking for a change’’ after running the operation for five years, aiming ‘‘to do the things that we have always kind of wanted to do’’, she said.
‘‘If we sell it’s an opportunity to go and work in Aussie or do some travelling, that kind of thing.’’
With just the two of them running the business, there hadn’t been a week when they hadn’t been able to take a wage, she said.