Smoking ban, hot weather blamed for closure
Vikki Lane boss disputed laneway was ‘enclosed’
Part of the problem with the business was that people were no longer allowed to smoke in the laneway. But it has also been a very long, hot summer. David Robinson
The licensee of a failed Auckland eatery blames a laneway smoking ban for losing 40 per cent of his clientele but says the hot summer did not help. David Robinson, a director and shareholder of Wine Loft [trading as Vikki Lane Bar and Kitchen], said that Auckland Regional Public Health Service action led to a drastic drop in customer numbers and the very long hot summer exacerbated issues.
“Customers decreased 40 per cent after the smoking ban in a week in June last year,” said Robinson who, with Graham Fairest, ran the eatery facing a partly covered walkway beneath Kiwibank and BDO House off Victoria St West.
Robinson said Vikki Lane opened in March 2016 but shut on March 10 this year. “The long and the short of it all is that the sales-to-costs ratio was not right thus resulting in where we are now.”
On March 11, Robinson and Fairest put the business into liquidation. It is now in the hands of Rachel Mason-Thomas of Meltzer Mason, who said she was advised the failure was “largely due . . . to a decision to not allow smoking in the business’ courtyard. Efforts to increase business were not successful and combined with a slow summer trade, business was not able to be sufficiently improved”.
On June 27 last year, Auckland Regional Public Health Service smoke-free enforcement officer Peter Aye wrote to Robinson, saying he had a complaint that “smoking was taking place in an internal area of your premises”.
Aye considered the laneway smoking space within the licensed area was “substantially enclosed. This is because the area is enclosed by walls and a glass roof that covers the entirety of the lane. Therefore, it is an internal area for the purposes of the Smokefree Environments Act 1990. This means smoking in the area is prohibited at all times”.
Aye wrote that at least four people were seen smoking inside the licensed lane, ashtrays were placed on at least 11 tables in that area, and “you were sitting with at least two smokers inside the licensed area”.
One person, who had dealt with the business and tried to help, said: “It was basically a rent-to-turnover problem. The guys are good operators. However, the rent was just far and beyond what a hospitality business should be paying in terms of rent to turnover ratios.”
Robinson said the enforcement action came as a huge shock.
“We were s***ing bricks. We had to change staff contracts to satisfy the smoke police,” he said.
Staff can’t work in areas where people smoke because it’s dangerous to their health. They almost had us in court. We had to get a lawyer.
“Part of the problem with the business was that people were no longer allowed to smoke in the laneway. But it has also been a very long, hot summer. People were going to the parks and the Viaduct and the waterfront.”
Robinson remains irked about the decision, disputing that the lane is an enclosed area. It is open at either end and the roof does not fully cover it, with substantial gaps, he said, therefore everyone had thought it was open and it wasn’t until the smoking crackdown that the Vikki Lane owners knew any differently.
However, he also acknowledged that whether the laneway was open or closed was not a matter in dispute at the time they leased the premises, nor had they received advice about its status.
It wasn’t until the complaint and official warning that a Meredith Connell lawyer became involved, he said, representing him and Fairest.
The two had a long career in hospitality, having spent many years in London and then returning to open Wine Loft in Auckland’s Shortland St.
It was partly a proposed rent increase there that drove them across town to open Vikki Lane, he said, because the Wine Loft rent was due to nearly double.
Vikki Lane’s rent is understood to have been around $200,000 a year and Robinson said the landlord was open to negotiation.
Robinson had tried to sell the business before calling the liquidators in.
He likened the liquidation to a divorce but said: “I accept this is where the country is going [smokefree].”
Robinson thanked customers who had used Vikki Lane in the past three years, particularly staff of Auckland Council’s 35 Graham St premises nearby, NZME, Meredith Connell, and others in BDO House and the neighbourhood.