One of Sydney’s leading pub families is plunging millions of dollars into renovating and buying new hotels, as the hospitality sector struggles with the cost of living crisis and twice-yearly alcohol tax hikes.
Laundy Hotels unveiled Bistro Red Lion – fronted by celebrity chef Manu Feildel – last week as part of a multimillion-dollar renovation of the 196-year-old Red Lion Hotel in Rozelle.
Pub baron Arthur Laundy (centre), with daughter Danielle and her husband Shane Richardson at the Red Lion Hotel in Rozelle.Credit: Wolter Peeters
The opening of the restaurant follows last month’s $20 million purchase of the Light Brigade Hotel in Woollahra, from the Bayfield family, and the opening of Italian eatery Bonnie’s within the Crossways Hotel in Strathfield South.
Headed by patriarch Arthur Laundy, who was named the 100th richest Australian on the Financial Review’s 2024 Rich List, the company is also planning renovations of the Watsons Bay Hotel, The Oxford Hotel in Drummoyne and Heritage Hotel in Wilberforce.
Laundy’s daughter, Danielle Richardson, said she believed the economy would improve as cost of living pressures eased.
“If you ask my dad, who is 83 now, he will always tell you of all the ups and downs that we have been through and [that] Australia is a very resilient country,” said Richardson, who is a senior executive in the family business.
Manu Feildel with Laundy Hotel’s group executive chef Jamie Gannon at his new restaurant Bistro Red Lion.Credit: Kitti Gould
The hospitality sector is among the hardest hit by high interest rates, escalating energy costs and falling consumer spending, with a growing number of restaurants, cafes and clubs going bust.
But Richardson said pubs appealed to customers facing cost-of-living pressures.
“We become the affordable option, as we are noticing more families and groups having dinners at our hotels,” she said.
Richardson said she would love interest rate cuts to ease pressure and stress felt by staff and customers, as well as relief from the twice-yearly tax hikes on alcohol.
“Price increases twice a year on products that are the foundation to our industry is so challenging for both ourselves as operators, and customers who get frustrated by the continual price rises,” she said.
Family patriarch Arthur Laundy nurses a beer in the recently refurbished Red Lion Hotel in Rozelle.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Opened in 1828, the Red Lion was acquired by the Laundy family in the 1990s and taken over by Richardson and husband, Shane, in 2019.
“The Red Lion was our first hotel purchase, and it was pretty run down and let’s say in need of some love,” she said. “We fell in love with it, the local community and the area.”
The couple have a long association with Feildel, who was the head chef at the former Bilson’s at the Radisson Blu Plaza and later ran his own restaurant, Manu, at L’Étoile in addition to achieving fame as a judge on competitive cooking show My Kitchen Rules.
“He is such a great guy, and we hit it off with him from the start,” Richardson said.
“The more we worked together the more it became evident there was an opportunity for us to offer our customers a great casual dining experience in a pub … and for Manu to have people taste his amazing culinary expertise again.”
Richardson joined the family business four years ago following a lengthy corporate career with companies such as Carlton and United Breweries and Coca-Cola.
“I feel very privileged actually that I get to work with my father, who has so much experience in pubs and so much to teach,” she said.
Her siblings include brothers Craig, who held various ministerial positions under Malcolm Turnbull, and Stuart, who wooed singer/actor and television personality Sophie Monk after appearing on reality TV dating show The Bachelorette, and later appeared on SBS documentary series Filthy Rich and Homeless.
Richardson, her brothers and sister Justine have all worked in the billion-dollar family business, which owns more than 40 hotels in NSW and, in May, struck a deal with gambling giant Tabcorp to upgrade betting facilities in pubs.
“The hardest thing about working with family is maintaining the balance between work time and personal time,” she said. “It is harder to leave work behind and not talk about it all the time.”
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