Hunter Valley Premium Meats: Enforced closures creating “anxiety” and “uncertainty”
It’s not just the restaurants, pubs and clubs that are feeling the pinch of forced closures, businesses that supply them are being hit hard as they struggle to keep afloat and keep staff.
Newcastle
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While pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes across the Hunter are being hit directly by COVID-19 shut downs, it’s also caused a massive flow-on effect for the businesses that supply them.
Hunter Valley Premium Meats in Mayfield, a wholesale supplier of meats across Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, Port Stephens and Central Coast, currently services around 150 pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes including Rustica, Signal Box, Rascal Burgers and The Prince of Merewether.
Owner Tim Perram said the enforced closures announced by the Federal Government on Sunday will be a massive hit to his business and create uncertainty into the future.
“Very uneasy feeling, uncertainty is the hardest part because nobody knows for how long we’re going to be shut down and it creates a lot of anxiety,” he said.
“No-one knows whether it’s two weeks, two months or heaven forbid, two years.
“I got a great crew of guys and girls and it has taken a long time to try and build that team.
“Trying to keep those guys in a job and trying to have a business on the other end of it.”
Mr Perram has been forced to cut hours and rotate shifts to ensure he can keep all his workers in a job.
“We’ve spoke to them and they have been good, they’re really accepting,” he added.
“There’s not one person we want to put off, but we still need to survive.
“It’s hard to know how to structure your workers. If someone gets the virus, we will all be on lockdown for weeks.”
He’ll be one of many local businesses to receive help via the Federal Government $66 billion stimulus package, but there’s doubt it will go far enough.
“I can’t see how the packages will save businesses. I appreciate any help from the government with loan repayments but it’s not just a free gift and we still have to pay them back,” he said.
The good news is restaurants and cafes across the region can decide to navigate the world of take away.
While some of his customers have shut down completely, others are still hanging on, offering customers an alternative.
“There’s some restaurants who have never done take away who are trying to get on that and save their business,” he said.
“It’s not easy because it’s not your core business and people aren’t used to going there.
“It’s hard when so many are trying to do the same thing but we’ll continue to service the people we can.”
Hard times also means Hunter Valley Premium Meats will now open their doors to the general public on a regular basis.
“Normally we don’t really open up to the public during the week, we’re now more than happy to see people come in during the week because it’s not interrupting our work because we don’t have much of it,” Mr Perram said.
“We’ve got a great supply of meat, supply is very easy compared to your local butchers because we have different avenues where we buy our meat.
“We’re probably luckier than some because we can adapt to serving the general public.
“We can sell meat online and we have a delivery service set up so we can service those in lockdown.”
He’s urging those across the Hunter to support small business in times like this by buying local.
“A lot of community spirit and it’s good to see people are banning together.”