News
The Invercargill Licensing Trust has made a strong recovery post-Covid and as a result, re-
employed 37 out of 87 staff who were recently made redundant.
In a report from the chief executive Chris Ramsay, the trust’s year-to-date sales for the last three months have seen an overall drop of $7.2 million compared to last year – with April down $4.1 million, May down $2.7 million, but June only down $500,000.
“Clearly we are seeing a very good recovery since lockdown in the March/April months.”
Off-premise retail liquor businesses have continued to trade well both during lockdown and after, with sales over the past four weeks up 17%.
Chris said, when contacted, that everyone they have re-employed have been really happy and excited to come back.
When asked if it was hard right now to offer people job security, he said it was challenging as there was so much that could happen beyond their control – as the lockdown proved.
“That being said, our short to medium term forecast is looking a lot better that we initially
anticipated.
”We are just as concerned as everyone else about the news on Tiwai, and the impact this will have on the community as a whole, in the long-term,” he said.
In late May the trust made 87 of its 606 staff redundant, following the Covid-19 pandemic, but the ILT always indicated they would bring people back once business picked up.
Hospitality and accommodation businesses in the South have also been boosted in recent weeks by flight numbers into Invercargill – from Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland – starting to return to pre-lockdown levels.