The Restaurant Association of New Zealand has issued a statement regarding the extension of Alert Level 3 in Auckland.
“The extension to Level 3 trading in Auckland will be extremely challenging for those hospitality businesses already struggling to recover from the first lockdown period and extended border closure,” expressed CEO Marisa Bidois.
“During the last Level 3 Alert, 33 percent of businesses did not open, and the remaining 67 percent that did open reported significantly reduced income. Given takeaway only represents 20 percent of all hospitality revenue we estimate that businesses who are open are trading at most a quarter of usual revenue.
“We appreciate and support the extension to the wage subsidy and look forward to hearing more details on it. However, further financial support on commercial lease payments which we have now been waiting on since April, is critical. Without this, we will face closure rates of at least 20 percent if not more.
“Anecdotal feedback from members indicates that they are weeks away from going out of business giving them debts they will be dealing with a number of years. Should this level 3 period be extended again this will break the back of many hard working business owners from some of our favourite dining establishments who are on a knife edge,” concluded Bidois.
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