Across Australia over the past fortnight, we have witnessed the easing of restrictions announced and ultimately come into effect for our industry with varying degrees of limitations, depending on which state you call ‘home’.

Whilst many of our nation’s publicans feared how they would survive the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 lockdown, we’re now faced with many in the industry deeming it ‘the great unknown’.

The general public certainly made no secret of their desire to be back to at the public bar, with thirsty patrons lining up at Sydney’s Pyrmont Bridge Hotel at the stroke of midnight on the eve of venue restrictions, to make their way in for a schooner or two (with a meal of course).

Yet while we can’t help but feel a sense of excitement for our local to once again open their doors, do our publicans share the same feeling? Will the coming weeks be viable for our industry as they work with limitations no one would have ever predicted?

This week, we spoke with another collection of Australia’s publicans for their views on how they see our industry progressing over the coming weeks.

Craig Shearer | Open Arms Hospitality

Purchasing his first pub in 2003, the much loved ‘Father Flanagan’s’ in Collingwood, Craig has gone on to own and operate multiple venues throughout Australia.

In 2012, Craig created and established the Beer DeLuxe brand of venues culminating in him and his partners accepting a lucrative offer to sell the brand and associated venues to Australian Venue Co in 2016.

These days, he is still as active as ever with current venues including The Terminus Hotel, North Fitzroy in Victoria and two Queensland venues, the Plough Inn, South Brisbane and The Collective in Palm Beach.

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Hardimans Hotel, Kensington. Source: Hardimans Hotel Facebook page 

Michael Thiele | Hardimans Hotel, Kensington

A true industry stalwart, Michael has owned and operated multiple operations throughout Australia and the world.

He started his journey by helping create the ‘Walkabout’ brand of pubs and bars across the UK in 1994, expanding the group to a total of 30 venues across the country by 2002.

Then in 2004, Michael established ‘Open Door Pub Co’ in Australia, after acquiring a portfolio of 41 Melbourne pubs from brewing giant, Lion Nathan.

After many successful years, he and his partners were also approached by Australian Venue Co and with a heavy heart, accepted an offer to sell the portfolio of pubs, resulting in one of Victoria’s largest pub transactions.

After a brief hiatus, Michael then re-entered the industry by purchasing Hardimans Hotel and quickly embarked on a multi-million dollar restoration, opening in September 2018.

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The Coppersmith, South Melbourne. Source: The Coppersmith Facebook page.

George Bagios | The Coppersmith, South Melbourne

Originally from Western Australia, George along with his father Con, have owned and operated many hotels throughout Perth, whilst still owning the freeholds of some of Perth’s more iconic venues.

In 2006, George purchased what was then known as the Cricket Club Hotel in South Melbourne.

After a few years of ownership, he embarked on a state-of-the-art rebuild and rebadging, to now be known as ‘The Coppersmith’.

An elegant hospitality destination, complemented by 15 boutique hotel rooms, the hotel is now firmly placed as one of South Melbourne’s premier hotels.

JLL: With pubs across the country opening under varying limitations dependant on each state, how do you feel your venue will fare under these conditions? Do you feel it could be better for some operators to wait to re-open when these restrictions are eventually eased further?

Craig: With our venues being in both Queensland and Victoria, we have had to get our heads around different sets of conditions. I think it really depends on the style of operation. 20 people is not a lot for a large venue, so unless they were already doing takeaway then it probably seems more feasible to remain closed and continue preparations for a reopen.  As for Victoria, I think if venues have multiple separated spaces then this is something that can work.  We are already open at our venue in the Gold Coast and will open in Brisbane closer to the 20 patrons start date, and are finishing some renovation work in Melbourne where we have been fortunate enough to reopen in time.  The team and myself can’t wait to be back to doing what we love.

Michael: We have reopened as we thought it was better for all concerned, both patrons and staff, that we opened on 1 June under the required conditions. As an owner, it will be difficult to break even never mind make a profit, however we feel that for our brand and in order to prepare for the next stage of easing of restrictions, it was the right thing to do. It has also provided us with much needed contact with our patrons after the lockdown. Given the layout of our venue, we will have a limit of 100 people under the current regulations which means we will have to service and staff six different areas in the pub, which is labour intensive and therefore costly. Some operators will not have the space and therefore patron numbers to justify opening and probably shouldn’t, there will be a number of businesses that unfortunately become victims of the economic effects of COVID-19 through no fault of their own. So, operators should have a conservative business plan in place that at least shows them that they can break even before they consider reopening.

George: I feel fortunate with our venue, as we are already well equipped in terms of our space and exit points. We will have the ability to set up separate zones on our ground floor to therefore have two dining areas to maximise our patron capacity. I sympathise with other operators whose venues may have smaller rooms and therefore the patron capacity may not be viable given the 1.5m special ruling. Many of Melbourne’s pubs still have that ‘old world’ charm which brings with it more intimate public bars and dining areas – certainly not COVID friendly, which will be problematic for some.

When the complete shutdown occurred, what initiatives have you undertaken? What has worked? And what have you found has been harder to implement?

Craig: When this first hit, and the enormity of the situation became apparent, me and the senior leadership team from our group started strategizing around three key areas;

• Stop – what did we need to do to efficiently stop operations. This included landlord negotiations, banks, suppliers, staff and venue lock downs.
• Shutdown – what needed to happen whilst shutdown – which included the ongoing job keeper programs, required venue maintenance and customer communications via social media.
• Start – this was the most exciting part of this whole ordeal, what could we do to make our businesses better when we reopened. We focused heavily on venue renovations and improvements, revising our marketing programs, implementing more efficient governance processes, revisiting our group wide training and employee benefits programs, and redefining our values and culture to ensure they were relevant for our current portfolio of venues and our ever-changing young teams of staff.

Our industry over its lifetime has faced numerous challenges, with the COVID-19 crisis being the worst, how quickly do you believe we as an industry can recover fully from it? Is there no quick fix?

Michael: There has ever been anything like this current Pandemic in my or anyone else’s experience or lifetime.

Having said that this the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance for the industry to RESET.

What do I mean by that you say?

I believe that the industry has been living too long in a fool’s paradise in the form of an ever- expanding economic bubble, where costs have been increasing, there has been pressure on real margins through ever increasing competition, a lot of it through price driven sales strategies.

If our industry is to survive as we all know it then;

All stakeholders Government, State Government, Landlords and operators need to come up with strategies and solutions for the biggest issues that face the industry.

• Simplify the Federal Hospitality Award and remove penalty rates

• Lower business tax

• Raise GST

• Abolish FBT

• Abolish payroll tax (It was a tax brought in during WWII for child endowment)

• Abolish stamp duty

• Rents re-evaluated, they need to be at a more realistic level for pure hospitality businesses, unless landlords want to be looking at increase in vacancy rates

In summary unless the above can be resolved, I don’t believe things are going to get back to anything like “normal” for a significant period, those with deep pockets will survive but a lot will not.

Craig: None of us have ever been through a situation like this, so not having the ability to crystal ball likely scenarios has meant we just have no idea what a recovery looks like, how long it may last, or if people will return to normal social and spending habits again. I don’t think there is a quick fix. We are now seeing a few outbreaks occurring through Victoria that show just how quickly the virus can get going again, so I feel that without a vaccine in place, it will be very difficult to kick start our industry again. I am confident we will get there eventually, it may just take a little longer than we all hope.

Has this made you consider keeping some of the initiatives you’ve been forced to make implemented even after the lockdown?

Michael: Labour is our largest single cost so initiatives we would consider keeping would be contactless ordering from an App whether for takeaway or in the pub itself. Whilst also limiting the kitchen trading hours to more commercially viable times. Some of the services we have suspended we would simply discontinue or perform ourselves. I think most businesses that do survive this will come out of this with a leaner business model.

George: I certainly think the take away option will live on with us and most other venues. We’re located in a dense residential area of South Melbourne so I believe it makes sense for us to continue on with delivery of boutique wine to some of our more ‘well-heeled’ neighbours and also continue to offer ready made meals and even the pre-packaged ‘finish off at home’ dining experiences which has been an excellent initiative of our industry.

There’s been a lot of talk in terms of ‘the world never being the same’ following our industry’s lockdown. Do you agree with this? Or do you take the opinion that we can eventually get back to where we were?

Craig: Never is a long time isn’t it? Will it reshape our behaviours in the short term? Absolutely. But I feel that people are creatures of habit and it won’t take too long for some form of normality to return to our lives,

George: At least for the short to medium term, the phrase ‘new order’ comes to mind in terms of what we and the public will need to learn to live with. Restrictions are of course easing and these changes seem like they’re happening weekly, if not daily. In horse racing terms, you have punters that will ‘bolt out of the gate’ to get back to their pub - but others won’t be as enthusiastic and will take their time, which we as operators need to be realistic and respectful of.

Do you think this could in fact be a positive long term for our industry given the public has potentially been given a reminder of what they ‘have lost’ during this time?

Michael: The public is very aware of what they are missing out on, but will they be prepared to pay more for what is a very expensive service and product to provide under the current restricted trading conditions? We’ll have to wait and see. Unless there is significant change in regulation and our industry RESETS, the public is going to end up with less to choose from in terms of hospitality offerings when they go out.

Craig: Quite possibly. It might be a very long time before we look back on this in time and say, “that helped my business”, or “that helped improve our industry”, but I think eventually we might.  I am pretty sure that with improved hygiene and cleaning processes, there will be a long-term behavioural change we see from our operators and yes, just maybe there may be a little more love for your local.

George: I certainly think it could be a positive. A few days after the lockdown came in, we began to get our head around the fact that it was a chance for not only our venue to revisit some of our practices, but for all venues to look at how they can best position themselves going forward. We all certainly hope that we never experience anything like this again, but who knows? All venues operators will now be even stronger than before in their resolve along with the greater public buoyed by their desire to support our pubs – that must be a positive.

On behalf of the JLL Hotels team, we stand in support of all publicans as they begin their journey across Australia’s easing of restrictions to in turn, build a stronger and even more resilient industry than before.

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