‘Dead’: Western Sydney business and mayor beg for more help

Locked down in one of Sydney’s hotspots of concern and with no end in sight, this family doesn’t know whether their business will last.

Struggling businesses in Sydney’s areas hit hardest by Covid-19 infections are begging for more help as they spend their life savings with no end in sight to the current lockdown.

Samantha Sleiman owns the up-market Butcher’s Block group, which has three restaurants in Barangaroo in the Sydney CBD, Wahroonga in the city’s north and Granville in the city’s west.

Ms Sleiman, 47, has been running the restaurants for six years with her husband Peter, 51.

Based in Granville with their five children, they first opened the restaurants elsewhere then opened up a shop closer to home.

“It used to be quite an eat street, now it’s a dead street,” Ms Sleiman told news.com.au.

As a Granville local, Ms Sleiman is in the Cumberland local government area, which is one of the 12 places where residents must endure a 9pm to 5am curfew and can only leave if they’re an authorised worker.

She recognises that the lockdown is necessary but wants more help.

“The expenses just keep mounting up, I don’t even want to look at the pile,” she said.

Despite applying for government help at the beginning of August, she is yet to hear back four weeks later and questions whether the family business will survive.

Ms Sleiman with her family.

Ms Sleiman used to have 200 staff working under her but that number has dropped to 10 — primarily for her employees who need to support their families and can’t survive off the $750 weekly disaster payments.

The Barangaroo venue has shut down and her Granville store only has two employees working there.

“We used to hire 200 staff, I’m down to 10, we’ve let 190 staff go,” she said.

“Having that weight on your shoulders of having 190 people not employed, especially when I know those people have got families, for me emotionally, is the hardest thing for me to cope.”

A whopping $80,000 has been spent out of her personal savings after she made the decision to pay staff.

“We paid everyone’s annual leave to try to help them with their families,” she explained.

“I’ll be very honest with you, the only thing keeping us afloat at the moment is coffee,” with it being the only product people are really buying.

The Butcher’s Block provides a bougie and boozy experience for customers — which is not suited to takeaway.

She was making a little bit of money from takeaway but said the tougher lockdown in Sydney’s west had effectively put an end to that.

An empty Butcher’s Block restaurant.

Luckily, Ms Sleiman’s landlords at the Barangaroo and Granville venues have been very accommodating with rent relief.

The same can’t be said for the Wahroonga Butcher’s Block rental space.

“We pay $15,000 a month,” she said. “You weigh up a $4 coffee. If coffee is just keeping us afloat, it’s not much.”

To add a final nail in the coffin, her landlord has also increased rent by 33 per cent.

Two of their stores are operating but one has temporarily shut down.

Ms Sleiman should be eligible for Jobsaver, which provides fortnightly payments of between $1500 and $100,000 for businesses with turnovers between $75,000 and $250 million, and also the Covid-19 Business Grant, which gives a one-off grant of $7,500, $10,500 or $15,000 to a business with more than $75,000 in turnover in a normal year.

Services NSW is urgently reviewing her case.

However, the restaurateur pointed out that even with the $15,000 one-off lump sum, “that’s not even going to cover our wages for one week.

“I do feel for the government in some ways but they’re too slow to react,” she added.

“Mental health has gone to s**t.

“I feel like I’m a counsellor, I counsel staff everyday. In the meantime I’m trying to hold my head above water.”

Her local mayor has been heavily critical of the NSW government’s response and this week has called for additional payouts for those in LGAs experiencing harsher rules.

She doesn’t know if the family business can survive.

Cumberland City Council Mayor, Steve Christou, said: “Many breadwinners in western Sydney cannot work from home and are not ‘authorised workers’.

“They may be facing a situation where the businesses they work for have closed – and some of them may never re-open.

“I’m calling on a special COVID-19 western Sydney support payment for the hardest hit LGAs.

“This will provide emergency relief to support families through what are the toughest conditions they’ve ever faced.”

He added: “We seek the assistance of the NSW State Government or Federal Government to provide additional financial support to our residents, many of whom have lost their entire household income.

“Emergency payments for desperate families are required urgently as they struggle to get through this lockdown that has choked businesses and livelihoods.”

The mayor also criticised NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian for not consulting the communities enduring the harshest rules in the country.

“Not once has she (Ms Berejiklian) reached out to me despite my repeated calls…,” Mr Christou said.

“We need the premier to work with us.

“We need her to understand the realities of living under these restrictions to find a better way through the current phase of this pandemic.”

In a statement to news.com.au, a spokesperson for Service NSW said they are “delivering billions of dollars in support to businesses on behalf of the NSW Government with a suite of measures for businesses designed to help reduce the financial impact of Covid restrictions including the 2021 COVID-19 JobSaver Payment, 2021 COVID-19 Business Grant 2021 and 2021 COVID-19 Micro-business Grant.

“Covid-19 financial support for businesses has always applied to all NSW communities.

“Any business, across the state, which has suffered a decline in turnover of least a 30 per cent is encouraged to apply for financial assistance.

“To date, more than 344,000 applications have been lodged across all three grants.

“About 89 per cent of applications across all three grants have been approved equating to $3.6 billion. Of this, approximately $3.27 billion has been paid, with the remainder to be paid in the next few days.

“Outstanding applications include new applicants, or applications that require further information to be able to proceed.

“The NSW government continues to monitor the public health orders and constantly reviews the ongoing financial assistance programs available to businesses impacted by Covid-19 restrictions.”

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