The somewhat-shocking revelation that Auckland hospitality icon, SPQR, is in liquidation and owes more than $2 million in GST and wages, is sadly supported yesterday by the owner of another Auckland icon, Vivaci, penning an open letter to the World advising it could be next.
These two aren’t fly-by-night start-ups. SPQR has been around for 28 years, with Vivaci an extra two.
Vivaci’s owner, Mandy Lusk, went public with their woes, but for some strange reason I can’t reproduce the audio playback of her interview with Jack Tame. However, I did listen to it live on Newstalk ZB.
Mandy explained, somewhat despairingly, what has happened, and I suspect the ingredients are the same for SPQR and another four or five that she said were about to fold in Auckland’s CBD.
She said they have suffered months and months of no income through lockdowns. An even longer period of people working from home, because of Ardern’s restrictions, and not in the CBD where the business is located. Then came the floods last year. And now a recession.
It’s enough to make you book a massive party there and write her a big cheque.
Readers might recall my dissatisfaction with this country’s response to the Covid debacle, and how I constantly questioned why the economic situation of businesses and people’s lives were ignored just so that Ardern could “save” 30,000 lives (*Snigger*). Well now it’s well and truly coming out of the wash.
And then there’s this:
What. A. Mess. But never fear, National is now in charge and change is imminent! Well, potholes might be fixed a little quicker.
No Minister 
Why are businesses allowed to go on trading building up debt to companies and the IRD???
I ran a small book business, T/O approx 500k and if I didn’t pay by 20th of month following the invoice date was called up by the accounts dept. Yet Whitcoulls and Angus and Robertson in Aus when they went to the wall owed about $40 million between them.
Bigger companies can get away with more such stunts than you could.
About a decade ago when Fonterra was in deep shit they publicly announced that their payment periods were going to stretch to three months – but only for the little guys who provided services to them, like plumbers, electricians, truck maintenance, etc, etc.
I was a Fonterra supplier at the time and I thought it was a fairly shitty thing to do, but they got away with it. And of course I found out years later that they had come close to not making payments to their farmers for a couple of months.
These people all sound very stressed. Perhaps they should come and get a massage from a local establishment.
But seriously… it’s been dismaying walking up Ponsonby Road and seeing the newly vacant storefronts. Even my own business has quietened down by a measure, though I’m still treading water for now, and expected it to be quiet in Winter anyway. I expect very little from National, but still believe in miracles. Hopefully if Trump gets back in, the world economy will lift, and Cuckson will claim credit. I won’t mind that.
thing that struck me in Auckland was how expensive eating out was compared to median income. With higher interest rates and houses refurbished over Covid they are staying home more. Lot of hospo hurting.
High cost of eating out is not restricted to Auckland W&P.
mrspdm and I had lunch in Palmerston North on Friday with our 5 year old granddaughter and her mother.
A toasted sandwich, two salad/quiche thingies, a bowl of chips two hot chocolates and a coffee came to about $65.00. I am not sure of the exact amount because mrspdm paid the bill when she ordered.
My Scottish blood said $40 would have been plenty to pay and while my toasted sandwich was excellent the two salad/quiche thingees were said to be very average.
Restaurants come and go. Some, like the pretentious consonants one, last longer than others but in the end they all have one thing in common: They ALL bloody fail to pay their taxes on the way out.
Restaurant prices need to be high. The overheads, many of them regulatory, usually mean the food cost has to be kept low compared with the prices (Hotels often about 25%, unlicensed private outlets often as low as 10 – 15%) and, of course, everything consigned to the pig bin (or the local food bank – but I repeat) has to be paid for by the customer or the restaurant quickly becomes a non-taxpaying charity.
With city outfits you also have fashion to deal with.
“Fine dining” has been going out of fashion for many years. The3 only people that can afford it are the “expense account” people and the so-called Glitterati’
You can eat out quite well at many of the new ethnic restaurants without breaking the bank with starched tablecloths and expensive cutlery etc.
I hate to tell Mandy Lusk this, since she probably already knows this, but a lot of people, including other businesses, are doing it tough at the moment.
The real fear is the kick-on effect back up the supply chain of smaller vegetable growers and the like that she talks about near the end of the interview. That’s when things really start to unravel.
Yes. I remember the second Covid lockdown which happened with about 2 hours notice to the country (I think it was the second one). I had (and still have) a client who distributed milk products for Fonterra across the upper North Island. All of his cafes, restaurants and dairies cancelled their orders. About $750K worth as I recall. That left him with $750K worth of product that he could only dispense with (i.e throw away). But it gets worse. A few weeks later, Fonterra sent him an invoice for $750K and asked for payment on the 20th of the following month.
I had cafe owners as clients too. The cancelled their cabinet food orders. The cabinet food maker businesses cancelled their product orders etc etc. The flow on effect was enormous, all on 2 hours notice etc.
Ardern didn’t give a shot about this sort of stuff. Indeed, she didn’t understand it. Neither did Hipkins. Nor Robertson. They just thought everything would be fine if they printed money and Treasury issued bonds. Well, we all know how that bond buying programme worked out.
Fucking mess. Ardern has a lot to answer for.