Mandy Lusk: Vivace owner on open letter calling for support to hospitality businesses

Auckland restauranter Mandy Lusk has penned an open letter calling on people and businesses to help the hospitality sector survive. 

It comes after Ponsonby restaurant SPQR’s closure last week, and the Vivace owner says she’s heard of three other restaurants closing in the next week. 

And her restaurant could be heading in the same direction. 

Vivace owner Mandy Lusk joined Jack Tame. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Auckland restaurant to Mandy Lusk has written an open letter
today calling on people and businesses to help the hospitality
industry to survive. Last week, the iconic restaurant SPQR closed,
and Vivaci owner Mandy Lusk says she's heard of three
other restaurants closing in the next week, and her own
restaurant may well be heading in the same direction. She's

(00:21):
with us this afternoon. High Mandy, Hi, Jack, So what
do you want.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
What we're asking is just we're not asking for handouts.
We're just asking for a little bit of a hand up.
And I saw so many comments on social media following
spqr's demise last week, and so many people saying they
wish they'd known how hard it was, and they wish
they'd been able to help. And I thought, we've actually
got nothing to lose. So so much of the debt

(00:52):
of STQR is probably related to lockdown periods, and we're
all trying to pay back things like small business loans
that we had to take out because wage subsidence didn't
cover sick pay and holiday pay and things for our team,
and we were banned from anything, and it's really hard
you know, particularly with Auckland, all those is a nationwide problem.

(01:15):
You know, we went from COVID to floods to a
recession and none of us had anything left in the tank.
And it's quite difficult when people are expecting us to
pay back money and debts from periods when we literally
couldn't earn a thing, that were locked out of our
own businesses. If you're not busy enough now, it's really

(01:37):
hard to pay those things back, and people get a
bit impatient and people are hunkering down. We understand that
people don't have money, but there are a few big
businesses out there that did do okay, and we're just
asking maybe if they could share the love a little
bit and stop getting a supermarket delivery to their boardroom

(01:57):
and having drinks after work there and maybe pop downstairs
wherever they are in New Zealand or pop next door. Yeah,
and just to help us, most of us are working
eighty hour weeks and we don't have time to We
don't have time to network and meet people and try

(02:19):
and find some new customers. So we're just asking if
maybe some of those nearests could help introduce them to
other people.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
So Mandy just give us some context here. We've obviously
seen SPQRS numbers, but just how tough is it for
the hospital industry right now?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
It's horrendous, And I think, you know, people have changed
and the way people live their lives have changed. So
we're finding that people have no hesitation and just if
it rains, they cancel. They and they think they're the
only person canceling. But I've spoke to someone who lost

(02:55):
forty one people on Sunday night and it's not a
particularly big business all weather related, and so we're just
we have to work out a way of being a
little bit more resilient. But we've got nothing, nothing left.
And some of those debts with this picure, some of
the comments that people have made, you know, how on

(03:16):
earth do they get that rack up that much debt?
Most of their text there, I would say probably seventy
to eighty percent of it would be penalties. And so
what we're just saying to people is if they could
just adopt a little local business, doesn't matter if they
do it for a week or a month, particularly the
business the businesses, they have that ability to really help

(03:38):
our industry. You know, if someone sends you an email
and concerns. A meeting at your office, can you just
maybe put on the bottom hey, instead of meeting in
your office, can we meet downstairs at this little cafe
there are adoptee for the months.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah, so look on you, you know, for getting the
message out there of because I just think it's really
important to be clear. You're not asking for a government
handout here, You're not asking for government assistance. You're looking
for bigger businesses who are a little bit more comfortable
than a lot of hospitality businesses are right now to
essentially adopt a hospow business for a month or two.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yep, just adopt a spot, shares, a love, love your
local just something just to make them aware because I
think so many of them don't realize. I know that
it's difficult because some of them don't want to be
seen to be spending money either and these tough times
and so that's something we are coming up against them
conscious of. You know, the Reserve Bank's request put hid in,

(04:34):
but the repels go far and wide. When these small
businesses will fail. It's not just it's not just their
hospital business at Owls. It's the tomato grower and the wine,
the small winery, and a lot of those places don't
they don't have outlets through supermarkets, you know. Restaurants and
cafes and bars are their only way of selling their
small artis and all produce. So we're just kind of

(04:56):
hoping that maybe people can just think about it and
just yeah, adopt someone for a little while, yeah, and
help us all.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah. Hey, well said Mandy, thanks for your time, We
really appreciate it. That is restratur and co owner of
the Vachi Restaurant, Mandy Lusk. For more from Hither Duplessy
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