The new president of the Invercargill Licensing Trust board, Paddy O’Brien, told the new team on Wednesday he promised to give 100% and expected other elected members to as well.

Angela Newell was re-elected vice-president, and the board heard from chief executive Chris Ramsay, who reported a strong last five weeks in business across all of its business units.

The opening of the Langlands Hotel helped contribute to that, opening at the end of August, and they’d had great reviews already, particularly about the new 360 bar on the top floor.

Chris said business had been strong in recent weeks, and there was no doubt they had benefited from big events held in the South such as the 3×3 basketball at Stadium Southland.

For the same five-week period last year the country was in lockdown until September 7, and then in Alert Level 2 restrictions for the rest of the time.

The ILT was up $5.5 million on the same time in 2019-20 (Covid lockdown and Level 2 restrictions were in place in 2021), so it made sense to compare to the previous year.

Total sales were also up $4,712,600 or 10.33% in the six month period to October 2, compared to 2019-20.

“It’s quite remarkable,” Chris said, however he was keeping a close eye on the current Covid spike, and whether the government would make any changes in relation to that.

New chefs have been recruited for the new Langlands Hotel, but there were holds up with Immigration New Zealand, and some people were waiting up to six months.

“We know we have at least five chefs ready and able to travel to Invercargill and begin employment with us. One of these five is a returning staff member that we have been trying to get back in to the country for the last six months. Given the significant, and growing, impact of staff shortages across all of our kitchens, this is an incredibly frustrating situation to be in.”

Paddy told his new board that past-president Alan Dennis had been praised at his farewell for having robust discussions around the room, and he wanted to continue those in the same manner.

“This was a rare strength of Alan’s and it’s important that we continue that,” he said.

New governance training would be brought in for all members and there would be some minor structural changes to the way meetings were conducted.

He was also keen for board members to have shared responsibilities around chairing different events such as scholarships and awards – “this is not a one man show.”

“We’re in good shape as an organisation, and now coming out of Covid, having just opened a $53 million dollar hotel that is world-class, I think it’s time to catch our breath collectively,” he said.

But he also believed it was important to continue to look forward and not stagnate, because if they did it would do an injustice to those who voted them on.

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