Food trucks Yo India, The Real Jerk, St Gerry’s struggling during COVID-19 lockdown
With events shut down for months, some of Melbourne’s most popular food truck operators are struggling to survive, and hold grave fears for the future. And they’re begging for government help.
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Struggling food truck owners are facing a bleak future as events and big gatherings cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions.
Conan Gomes, who runs the Yo India food truck wit-
run business it was not eligible for financial help from the state or federal governments.
“We only have a few months to make money that allows us to pay the bills to survive the winter,” Mr Gomes said.
“It was a pretty tough summer already, with the weather, bushfires and a lot of big music festivals got cancelled.
“I think what we found in December, January, February a lot of people were not willing to come down to events.”
He said income dropped by more than half at events they did attend and takings at Moomba were down by 60-70 per cent.
He said when coronavirus hit, everyone’s events were cancelled for the next three to four months, including private functions, weddings and birthdays.
“Since March we have had no work, everything has stopped,” he said.
“Everything got cancelled, even big events that normally happen in November and December. “Usually by this time everything is confirmed, we know we’re locked in six or seven months before, but no one has got in touch to say if the events are happening.
“Even if the lockdown was to finish in a couple of months, we don’t know if events will go ahead, if international flights are still cancelled, will artists still come from abroad, will people feel safe going to events?”
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Mr Gomes said he had emailed Premier Daniel Andrews about his concerns.
‘They said they’re helping a lot of small businesses but there should be larger help to sole traders or family-run businesses who don’t have any staff but at the same time we pay taxes, we create indirect jobs, we buy supplies, we are still spending money in the economy,” he said.
He said his family was also planning to open a restaurant on St Kilda Rd and had signed a lease and spent their savings on the plan, but were now in limbo.
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The Real Jerk Food Truck owner Roderick Grant said the impact of the lockdown had been significant.
Mr Grant said he had a couple of food trucks and a catering business but had to change the way his business operated while the lockdown was in place.
He has a warehouse in Springvale where he operates a truck out the front which sells direct to the public and has also started to offer pick-up and delivery.
He said government assistance depended on the level of a businesses’ operation and he had applied for the JobKeeper allowance for several staff members.
But he said food truck operators were nervous about the future.
“Because we don’t know how long this thing is going to last,” he said.
“Even after the lockdown is lifted it will still take quite some time for things to go back to being even close to normal.
“I think the struggle for small business owners and food trucks, it’s far beyond the lockdown, coming back to being normal.”
He said food truck operators would need long term financial support.
“I don’t know what that looks like but I know for a fact there are going to be a lot of trucks up for sale in the next six months if something doesn’t happen.”
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St Gerry’s owner Dean Giannakis, who has three food carts and a vintage caravan, has also felt the impact of the lockdown, with more than 40 upcoming events cancelled.
“The biggest impact is all my great casual staff have got no employment from me,” he said.
“When you’ve got over 40 events cancelled or postponed from that date in March when the bans came into effect until August, it’s a big whack of work when you’re self-employed and you rely on that money.
“I mean I’ve got a mortgage, I’ve got finance for my vehicles and other expenses to live and I rely heavily on event season.”
He said the only thing he had been able to continue was Uber Eats and other delivery type orders which wasn’t huge money.
He has applied for the Federal Government’s JobKeeper package and a $10,000 grant from Business Victoria but hadn’t received any cash yet.
Mr Giannakis called on the state and federal governments to offer more support for those in the industry.
According to the ATO, JobKeeper Payment applications opened on April 20. Prior to this date, employers could register their interest with the ATO.
The first JobKeeper payments to eligible employers will start in the first week of May.
The State Government said it had backed Victorian businesses with an initial $1.7 billion economic survival package and had continued to deliver support where it was most needed.
It said so far there had been payroll tax refunds of $440 million paid to 17,000 small and medium-sized businesses, and more than $115 million in businesses support fund grants paid to businesses who fall below the payroll tax threshold.
The State Government urged business owners to contact Business Victoria to find out what support was available to them.
Businesses can get information on dealing with coronavirus by calling the Business Victoria hotline on 13 22 15 or visiting business.vic.gov.au.