Coronavirus: Milton Hotel publican Damien Martin’s first three months not what he imagined
In the first three months he has owned the Milton Hotel, Damien Martin has faced bushfires, evacuations and now COVID-19. Despite the constant battles, he has vowed to keep going.
The South Coast News
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The forced closures of licensed venues due to COVID-19 is just another bitter pill to swallow for business owners who have already been hugely impacted by the summer’s bushfires.
Milton Hotel licensee Damien Martin said it was a horrible feeling telling staff he could not continue to employ them due to restrictions on public venues, which came in to effect on March 23.
Having opened in mid-December, Mr Martin and his business partner had already navigated the turbulent summer months with the ripple affect of the bushfires impacting their first Christmas holiday business.
“It was between four or five days where it was just like no power, no water, highway closure and then the fires kicked back up again and came through and then shut us down again,” he said.
The owners already down about 30 to 40 per cent on their projected intake when the new restrictions came in to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
“So now we’ve had to lay-off about 30 people,” Mr Martin said. “It’s horrible.”
Mr Martin, who also owns a brewing business, said he was uncertain how that venture will fare due to changes in the micro-economy from job losses. He was looking ahead to Easter to try and claw some of the lost tourist turnover back.
We've been brewing non-stop for the last three or four weeks to have beer ready for Easter, and now that’s just been pulled from us too,” he said. “That’s 30 locals that we just literally put out of jobs yesterday so it's probably a strain on the economy in itself.
“Those guys, who generally work in the industry, go and get coffee or meals on Monday and Tuesdays and their nights off, especially in a small town like this.”
Following the lead of some other restaurants, cafes and hotels across NSW, the Milton Hotel is planning to start a takeaway service.
They’ve also looked into Federal Government support including the ramped up wage subsidy package announced in the “safety” package.
Mr Martin said he was hopeful further announcements may offer more support for commercial leases as bills were still there to pay despite the doors having to be shut.
“We've been looking at what the government's bought out but they're all tax breaks,” he said.
“It's sort of aimed at businesses to give them a floor where you can sort of bounce back from, like big tax breaks to GDP and stuff like that, but at the moment for a new business it's not helpful.”
However, like many other business owners, it’s time to be creative.
“I’m pretty sceptical (about takeaways), but we’ve got to try,” Mr Martin said. “We’ll just keep doing our best I guess.”
Further north, a Huskisson restaurant owner fears some cafes and bars will struggle to exist without significant government assistance amid COVID-19 lockdowns.
The Quarters Huskisson co-owner Simon Spence is one of many business owners in the south coast’s hospitality industry that suffered a huge downturn due to the summer’s bushfires.
Now he and his co-owner James Noone have had to close their doors temporarily after government restrictions were tightened on eateries due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The co-owners are not sole traders, so the Morrison Government’s first stimulus package does not apply.
They’re hopeful the Federal Government announces freezes or offers assistance for commercial leases while all operators are in lock down, but they’re not “holding their breath”.
“Without significant government assistance for commercial operators I don’t see a lot of us staying open if the lockdown continues longer than three months,” he said.
Mr Spence said they would be making a call to their landlord, again, asking whether they could defer rent. Their landlords deferred January’s rent over February, March and April.
“We have a commercial lease to pay. Our landlords are in a similar industry and have been affected in similar ways. They obviously understood our situation,” he said.
“If I’m playing devil’s advocate and my family owned a building that we leased, we’d still have a mortgage to pay.”
The uncertainty and stress follows months of cost-cutting moves, navigating red tape for bushfire assistance and calls to banks and landlords.
The Quarters is not eligible for the $50,000 grant because it was not directly impacted by fire. They were eligible to apply for the two-year interest free loan, up to $500,000, but because their taxes are lodged in mid-March they have not submitted a claim.
Only in recent times have they had success when a lot of red tape was lifted for the $10,000 bushfire assistance grant.
“We went online and it took two minutes to submit our claim and the money was transferred in five days,” Mr Spence said.
They’ve also been approved by their insurer for their claim of disruption to their business due to the bushfires. However, the claim was submitted on January 5, and more than 10 weeks later it remains unsettled.
Mr Spence said his eatery and bar has had a 70 to 80 per cent ongoing downturn.