Ashburton Guardian, Thursday, April 16, 2020

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Thursday, Apr 16, 2020

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Hospo making plans for new norm By Sue Newman

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Taking a hospitality business out of mothballs will be a whole lot harder than simply turning on the lights and opening the doors, says Columbus Coffee owner Nigel Heney. He stopped trading on March 24 and since then he’s watched his bank account go into freefall as bills were paid and cashflow stopped. “It was pretty scary the day we closed and had to give all our cabinet food away to staff and it’s scary when I think it’ll cost $7000 to $8000 to restock. And that’s not money we’ll have sitting around. The bills all have to be paid

and our bank balance is not looking too healthy.” He’s not anticipating the green light to reopen for at least two weeks but when that does come, it won’t signal an instant open for business, he said. “There’ll be a lot of hospitality business for suppliers all of a sudden and we’ll be two or three days to get restocked and food in cabinets, we can’t just open. And we don’t know what we’ll walk back into, that’s the unknown.” Opening after the lockdown will be very much like starting a new business from scratch, Heney said. “You won’t be sure who is going to walk through the door. If we knew we’d

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walk back into full-on business that would be fine, but will people have confidence, that’s the unknown.” Heney has secured the government’s wage subsidy and he’s trying to keep his team intact against the day he’s allowed to reopen. And while he’s hoping that reopening will come soon, realistically, it’s unlikely until the alert level drops to two, and worst case scenario, that could be three or four weeks out, he said.

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