Call for contactless takeaways to help save jobs
The Restaurant Association is calling on the Government to allow contactless delivery of takeaways at all alert levels to save thousands of jobs.
A survey of association members found more than 50 per cent are in favour of contactless takeaways being allowed even in the event of another level 4 lockdown.
“Delivery options continue to be made available to other businesses such as online retail and supermarkets,” said Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois. “Our industry has already proven it can operate a safe contactless service at level 3, so we see no reason these couldn’t be extended to level 4.”
Around 67 per cent of the industry is able to offer takeaway at level 3.
A blanket ban was put in place for hospitality through alert level 4 in March, which meant 98 per cent of businesses had no way to generate revenue, Bidois said.
“We’re looking for options . . . to keep the industry somewhat ticking along,” she told the Weekend Herald.
Although more than half of hospitality businesses surveyed supported allowing takeaways, 14 per cent said they needed more support and a wage subsidy to make trading at level 4 viable.
David Meagher, owner of Mt Albert restaurant Sal Rose
Italian Restaurant &
Bar, has been an advocate for takeaway trading since the last lockdown.
He said it meant the difference between being able to keep staff or not.
“You can’t just close down for 5-6 weeks and pay your staff and hang on to everyone. We were fortunate that because of the wage subsidy I didn’t have to lay anyone off.
“Click and collect of takeaways, that’s not going to be the lifeline, but it is something and as long as [lockdown] doesn’t drag on forever it’s a form of income and form of cashflow coming in.”
Meagher said even at level 3, the Government needed to follow the UK and introduce vouchers for savings discounts to encourage people to buy takeaways to help businesses stay afloat during challenging times.
“Food is an essential service and why is it that just the supermarkets and dairies are able to open? It’s like saying we’re not trusted enough to follow the precautions, which we do.” Under level 3, Sal Rose is able to make between 30 and 40 per cent of its regular turnover. The ability to at least make this under level 4 would make a big difference, he said.
Within the Restaurant Association membership, more than 1000 jobs have already been lost and 50 businesses have closed since the first round of lockdown. The association anticipates the actual number to be much higher and more closures to follow.
It has been calling for an extension and more fiscal support for the sector since March.
“When you look at the effects the first level 4 had on our sector — five weeks with no revenue coming in — it was devastating for the industry. There were thousands of jobs lost and we saw business closures.
“If we head into another level 4, those businesses that were able to hang on will certainly be facing a challenging time and I would question whether they would be able to remain viable,” Bidois said.
The industry had “unmitigated success with contactless food delivery” after the introduction of level 3 guidelines, she said.
“These guidelines set out how food and beverage businesses can implement safe contactless delivery programmes.”