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Restaurant Association welcomes move to improve the Holidays Act

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Media release


The Restaurant Association of New Zealand welcomes the government’s proposal to improve the Holidays Act, marking a significant step forward in addressing long-standing issues that have affected both employees and employers across the country.

The complexities and challenges posed by the current Holidays Act have been widely acknowledged, with Hon van Velden referencing notable cases within the public sector itself such as MBIE, finding themselves inadvertently non-compliant. The result has caused significant legal and financial burdens on businesses striving to navigate the Act’s complexities.

“Reforming the Holidays Act is a relief for both small and large businesses in the hospitality industry, who have been asking for a less complex and a more straight forward way of working out holiday entitlements” said Marisa Bidois, CEO of the Restaurant Association.

“The hospitality sector, known for its diverse and flexible working arrangements, has been particularly disadvantaged under the existing framework, which fails to accommodate the reality of varied work patterns beyond the standard 40-hour work week. We welcome the signal from the Minister to pursue enduring solutions to the Holidays Act that can adapt to the constantly evolving nature of work and business needs.

“We would also like to see less complex and burdensome compliance requirements on business,” added Bidois.

The Association is optimistic that any updates to the legislation will reflect the dynamic needs of the hospitality industry, offering clarity and simplicity to employers.

Hon Van Helden also expressed her commitment to gathering insights from essential stakeholders who will be required to implement the Act. She emphasised the importance of making it practical for all parties involved, ranging from large multinational companies to small, family-operated restaurants in small towns.

“We welcome the opportunity to work with the government alongside our members to review these changes, ensuring they meet the needs of the sector,” concluded Bidois.

HEATH STREET CAFE IS HIRING!

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Head Chef

We’re seeking a dynamic and energetic chef to run our small kitchen located in Mount Maunganui.

This is an incredible opportunity for a talented, creative chef who is ready to put their unique stamp on our established café.

Responsibilities:

  • Overseeing the day-to-day kitchen operations to ensure a smooth workflow and maintain our high-quality standards.
  • Developing seasonal & specials menus, ensuring they are aligned with our café’s vision and appeal to our customers.
  • Managing inventory and sourcing high-quality, local ingredients.
  • Ensuring compliance with food hygiene, and H&S standards.
  • Collaborating with the owner to set budgets, optimise costs, and maintain the efficiency of the kitchen.

Qualifications:

  • Experience as a Head Chef or similar role, running an all-day menu.
  • Experienced in baking (scones, muffins, slices, etc.).
  • Up to date with culinary trends and optimised kitchen processes.
  • Passionate about making healthy & delicious food.
  • Outstanding communication and leadership skills.
  • Well organised and works effectively under pressure.
  • Ability in dividing responsibilities and monitoring progress.

Immediate start available.

This is a full-time position for 5 days per week. Must work at least one day on weekends, either Saturday or Sunday.

Hours are likely to be 6:00am – 2.30pm weekdays, and 7:00am – 2.30pm weekends. We’re also looking to introduce a Friday dinner service in the future.


Sound like you? We would love to hear from you. Please provide a CV and a short cover letter about yourself.

Contact: Angela at heathstreeteat@gmail.com

Please ONLY apply if you have the Right to Work already. We are not an accredited employer and will not be considering overseas candidates for these roles.

Stats NZ say food prices have smallest annual increase since May 2021

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Food prices increased 2.1 percent in the 12 months to February 2024, the smallest increase since May 2021, according to figures released by Stats NZ.

The 2.1 percent increase is noticeably lower when compared with the 12.0 percent increase in the 12 months to February 2023. The lower annual increase was due to cheaper fruit and vegetable prices, down 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Cheaper prices for fresh produce such as tomatoes, broccoli, and lettuce drove the decrease in fruit and vegetable prices,” consumer prices manager Will Bell said.

All other broad food groups increased in the 12 months to February 2024. Price movements, in order of their contribution, were:

  • restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food prices – increased 6.7 percent
  • grocery food prices – increased 3.9 percent
  • non-alcoholic beverage prices – increased 4.3 percent
  • meat, poultry, and fish prices – increased 0.2 percent.



Restaurant Association CEO meets with Minister’s office to discuss strategy for hospitality portfolio

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Restaurant Association CEO, Marisa Bidois, recently engaged with the Minister for Hospitality and Tourism’s office to discuss the strategy for hospitality in this portfolio. This was an important opportunity to offer targeted feedback and solutions to enhance the government’s strategy for the hospitality sector.

Four key areas were emphasized: tackling industry legacy issues, addressing skills gaps, streamlining business processes, and fostering stronger industry-government partnerships.

In the meeting we focused on proposing tangible, granular solutions, founded on the feedback from members. A number of key issues and solutions were put forward with a short highlight of some of these including:

  • Showcasing and highlighting businesses with best practice processes, including those that have achieved HospoCred accreditation. Recognition could include,
    • Fast-tracking of governmental applications and licenses for accredited businesses and discounted fees.
    • Incorporation of HospoCred in monitoring and verification programmes.
  • Addressing Work Shortages Action
    • For working holiday visa agreements where visa holders can not work for the same employer for longer than three months, extend this period to a minimum of six months.
    • Setting industry-specific median wage requirements instead of national median wage levels in visa requirements.
  • Supporting adaptation and modernisation  
    • Investment in greater rural fibre connectivity and mobile coverage.
    • Developing a national strategy to address food waste and subsidise recycling costs (e.g. cardboard and glass bin costs) to incentivise waste minimisation.
  • Changing the perception of hospitality
    • Support and promotion of positive programmes and outcomes in the hospitality industry, and direct engagement on any issues of concern instead of airing these through media.
    • Ensuring the MBIE business tasked with providing advice on hospitality to the government is actively engaged with the sector, and due attention is placed on hospitality alongside tourism.
  • Aligning immigration and education policies
    • Support the hospitality industry to develop frameworks against which overseas registrations, certifications and training can be measured.
    • Support the hospitality industry to develop frameworks against which skills and recognitions can be incorporated into immigration processes.
  • Legislative and regulatory burden
    • Engaging with the hospitality industry on what changes can be made to legislation that will ease the regulatory burden on our businesses, in particular:  Holidays Act 2003, Shop Trading Hours Act 1990, Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 to require consideration of overseas registration, certification or relevant experience for manager’s certificate.
  • Public sector engagement with and understanding of the hospitality sector
    • Ensuring officials responsible for providing Ministers with advice on hospitality policy continue to engage with the Restaurant Association as well as the industry, providing regular upskilling and briefings on the state of the hospitality industry to staff across those business units which impact the hospitality portfolio.
    • Work with the hospitality industry to develop New Zealand’s national and regional food stories, to incorporate into our broader tourism narrative and fill a gap in the marketing of New Zealand as a dining destination.

Wage thresholds for certain visa types increase

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Wage thresholds for the following visa categories – Skilled Migrant Category, the Green List Straight to Residence and Work to Residence visas, and the Parent Category residence class visa – increased in line with the median wage (NZD$31.61 an hour) on 28 February 2024.

To note, however, that this increase does not apply to the Acredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV), which the Government signaled in December will remain at the current rate of NZD$29.66 an hour.

All sector agreements and exemptions to the median wage will also remain in place with current wage rates until further decisions are taken on the use of the median wage under the AEWV.

The expiry of the tourism and hospitality wage exemption to paying the median wage has been delayed. This currently enables certain roles in hospitality and tourism to be paid at 95% of the median wage and was due to expire in April 2024. Further information on these sector exemptions is available here. We will notify of any further development regarding the sector exemption as information is released.

Under-insurance: don’t get caught out

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By Restaurant Association partner, Gallagher Insurance

In 2023 we saw a paradigm change in the insurance market in New Zealand as a result of two significant weather events at the start of that year; the Auckland anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Our clients lodged more claims from these two events than they did after the 2011 Canterbury earthquake.

The number one objection that New Zealand businesses used to have when buying insurance was “It won’t happen to me”. That is no longer a valid objection.

The majority of NZ businesses have purchased business insurance. However, they also have an assumption that they are fully insured and will be able to financially survive a total loss from an insurable event. This is becoming a flawed assumption.

Unfortunately, a significant proportion of businesses are materially underinsured. This means that they won’t have enough insurance cash paid out to be able to trade through a total loss event. This is important because total Loss events are on the increase.

Three years of high inflation is a big contributing factor to this underinsurance situation. Business owners are trying to mitigate large premium increases by not increasing sums insured values or by even reducing cover. This is understandable as they face increases on most expense lines in their business.

Insurance is a financial instrument that should be used to transfer insurable risk to an insurance company’s balance sheet.

In the current environment we are seeing businesses losing sight of how much risk they are inadvertently holding themselves as they use premium savings as the predominant purchasing criteria for their insurance programme.

In our profession we get to see the consequences of underinsurance at claim time and it’s never easy to deal with.

That’s why our brokers have a goal to show their clients what Fully Insured looks like by asking the tough questions, so that they can make more informed decisions on what insurable risk they are holding themselves. We don’t want surprises at claim time as it’s impossible to fix after the event.


To understand how Restaurant Association partner, Gallagher Insurance (formerly Crombie Lockwood) can help your business click here and we’ll arrange for a Gallagher broker to contact you shortly.

Minister for Hospitality acknowledges the sector

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Minister Doocey, has acknowledged the importance of our sector in light of new tourism data that reveals tourism stepping up to become the country’s second-biggest export earner.

Minister Doocey explained that “the Tourism Satellite Account shows how strongly tourism rebounded post-pandemic with total tourism and hospitality expenditure in New Zealand of $37.7b for the year ending March 2023, an increase of $10.7b from the previous year. The data shows after the borders fully reopened New Zealand began to see a normalising of tourism flows with a greater mix of international visitors returning in droves along with strong spend increases in hospitality services and visitor experiences.”

As the Minister identifies, this shows how important international connectivity is to New Zealand. This data demonstrated the importance of tourism to main centres and regions, our businesses and our economy as a whole.

Other key figures from the Tourism Satellite Account show:

  • Overseas visitor expenditure increased by $8.9b to $10.8b
  • Domestic tourism expenditure increased 7.2 per cent to $26.9b
  • Total number of people employed in the tourism industry increased by 49.2 per cent to 318 000 people
  • Tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $13.3b, or 3.7 per cent of GDP

“These results clearly show the resilience of tourism which is owed to the determination and grit of tourism businesses across New Zealand who got through the pandemic and geared up ready to meet visitors with open arms,” Mr Doocey says.

“Most regions rely on tourism and hospitality, which creates jobs and opportunities for New Zealanders. My message to tourism and hospitality operators around the country is that our government will continue to support them to grow.”

LITTLE ITALY NZ IS HIRING!

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With our opening in Auckland fast approaching, we are looking for a cook and an experienced waiter to finalize the restaurant team
The positions offered are full-time and continuous.
Working hours are weekdays and daytime only.
Please send your applications by messenger or email to: nz.little.italy@gmail.com

132 Halsey Street Auckland

Westpac Managing Your Money workshops – March 2024 sessions

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Everyone can use a little extra help when it comes to reaching their money goals. Westpac’s Managing Your Money programme joins us to offer their engaging, practical and interactive financial wellbeing programme to help you feel more confident when it comes to making decisions about your money.

You are invited to join the Westpac Managing Your Money team for their March 2024 series with topics.


Session One: Setting New Years Resolutions

Tuesday, 5 March. 11am-12pm

Click here to register.

Session Two: Buying Your First Home

Thursday, 7 March. 11am-12pm

Click here to register.

Session Three: Managing Your Mortgage

Tuesday, 19 March. 11am-12pm

Click here to register.

Session Four: (Special Topic): The Housing Market Update

Thursday, 21 March. 11am-12pm

Click here to register


The Managing Your Money team offer these classes as general information only and do not talk about Westpac products and services. If you need personalised advice, email managingyourmoney@westpac.co.nz they’ll find the right person/team to help. 


You can view more training on the Association’s Training Hub.

Member feedback on current challenges shared with Minister for Small Business 

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Association CEO, Marisa, has engaged with the Minister for Small Business, Andrew Bayly, sharing member feedback on the biggest challenges on our wish list to address.

At the Association, we structure our support for the sector around three pillars, Skills, Training, and Development; Environment and Sustainability, and Cost of Business and Regulation – this is the where the key focus lies for the Minister.

Member feedback shared with the Minister included challenges around navigating employment law and Holidays Act requirements, immigration complexity and restrictions, managing rising labour and food costs (and availability), generating revenue, working from home impacts for hospitality, how Government can create regulatory efficiencies or assist small businesses navigating regulations, staffing and recognition of our skilled workforce, and much more. 

We also raised the following points:

  • It has been positive to see the Fair Pay unwound and 90-day trial periods extended.
  • The Holidays Act is still causing issues and we acknowledge this is on the radar for change.
  • If there was a once size fits all system for confirming business details this could cut down on the time spent processing various regulatory applications. There is one for food safety, one for liquor licensing, outdoor licensing etc.
  • There are the obvious costs to running a business: lease or mortgage, rates, utilities, overheads – these are the big things that everyone thinks of. However, what really determines whether or not a business in our sector will succeed is all the little 1% costs that stack up – and a lot of that comes from regulation and lost productivity dealing with licences.
  • One of the key issues members raise is managing the complexity of the regulatory environment.

We will meet with the Minister again in the coming months to further advance some of our proposed solutions for hospitality and will keep members up to date and involved in those discussions.

You can find review some of the selected member feedback below.

What is difficult?

  • Finding Staff
  • Food Costs
  • Employment law and how strongly weighed it is towards the employee
  • Minimum Wage Increases

What would make it easier for you to do business?

  • Helping to make the accreditation process easier to bring in staff from overseas. It is currently taking approximately 100 days to get this approved which means businesses are short staffed even though they have a candidate ready and waiting to start work.
  • Food costs need to be regulated.
  • Slow down the minimum wage increases. They have jumped more than ever before in the past few years, whilst employers have been suffering through business closures with Covid and Cyclone Gabrielle.

What is difficult?

  • I think a lot of small business people are good operators but find the administrative demands of meeting all the Employment Compliance, Health and Safety Compliance, and Food Safety Compliance etc beyond their level of time and expertise. We are very fortunate to have such a skilled and dedicated Association to help us, but many small businesses are working independently and have no support. Either the compliance must be minimised or the Government need to have dedicated people to help small business meet the requirements through free training and mentorship.

What would make it easier for you to do business?

  • An even playing field between our obligations to our employees and their obligations to us. At present it is completely out of balance and weighted almost exclusively for the wellbeing and rights of the employee and against the employer. This has caused many fair employers unnecessary stress, time and money and needs to be rectified if we want small businesses who hire staff to thrive.

International report reveals top challenges and trends shaping international hospitality 

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As our local industry shapes its business strategy for 2024, delving into the trends and challenges faced by international hospitality businesses holds significant value. A recent survey conducted by TouchBistro among restaurant operators in the USA and Canada highlights several parallels with our own industry landscape.


The annual 2024 State of Restaurants Report, outlines the top challenges facing the industry, alongside the emerging trends shaping it, revealing that while food costs and labour costs continue to be major financial strains, operators are navigating the changing industry landscape by tapping into new revenue streams and technologies.

Going into 2024, top pain points that operators face include:

  • Inventory costs are top concern: 58% of those surveyed note inventory costs as their number one concern. 60% of operators reported that all or most of their suppliers have raised prices in the past year, with the average expenditure on food increasing by a whopping 41% in the past year alone.
  • Menu prices reflect inventory costs: In response to rising inventory costs, 67% of restaurateurs raised their menu prices in the past six months. While this demonstrates that operators are still resorting to price hikes to offset rising costs, these pricing increases were slightly smaller than the previous year. 
  • Staff turnover rates remain high: On the one hand, the staffing shortage has eased significantly internationally, with 82% saying they were short at least one position, which is an improvement from last year when a whopping 97% said the same. However, turnover rates remain unchanged from last year at 28% for all full service restaurants.
  • Commission fees still eating into profits: 46% of operators added more off-premise ordering options to boost profits, however, they are not keeping all of these profits as nearly a quarter (24%) actually report paying more than 20% in commission fees on each order.

What’s in store for hospo in 2024

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– Marisa Bidois

As we step into the year 2024, we do so with cautious optimism. Our industry is no stranger to change, and the coming year promises a mix of opportunities and challenges.

In 2023, our industry marked a momentous milestone with the establishment of a dedicated Hospitality Minister—an accomplishment that fills me with particular pride. At the Restaurant Association, we tirelessly advocated for this change over several years, and witnessing it finally come to fruition is truly gratifying. We believe that this development is of utmost significance, as it cements our industry’s permanent place in the Government’s narrative. We are optimistic that this newfound influence will lead to positive changes that benefit our industry as a whole, enabling us to drive meaningful improvements for the betterment of all involved.

Along with this major milestone achievement, we also see the reinstatement of 90-day trial periods, and the repeal of the Fair Pay Agreements. These changes have brought much needed optimism for our businesses.

Nonetheless, it was also a year marked by substantial cost-of-living challenges. Coupled with adverse weather conditions that severely impacted various regions in the North Island, these factors presented formidable hurdles for our industry to overcome.

Looking at the economic landscape, we are seeing five key risk areas: inflation, fiscal policy, population growth, the housing market, and geopolitics. Encouragingly, experts forecast a gradual decline in inflation. This reduction is expected to ease the financial burden on households, which has historically resulted in increased patronage at our establishments.

Turning to regulatory changes, two significant have happened. First, Trial Periods will are accessible to all. Second, the unwinding of Fair Pay Agreements will provide another welcome respite for our businesses.

Visitor numbers are also expected to continue their growth trajectory,  but not at the rate that has been predicted previously. However, it will still increase, and this trend not only benefits our industry but also bolsters the overall economy. As tourists flock to our beautiful country, our members across the nation are poised to showcase the diversity and excellence of Aotearoa’s culinary scene.

Despite ongoing skills shortages, our recent surveys suggests that the severity of this issue has lessened compared to recent years. However, it is still an area for us to focus on and to address this challenge, we must persist in developing our workforce through training and development programmes. The Restaurant Association remains steadfast in its commitment to working with our members to find innovative solutions and bridge the skills gap. Investing in our workforce is pivotal to delivering exceptional dining experiences.

Profitability remains a central focus for our industry. After enduring some of the toughest years on record, it is imperative that our businesses continue to review their systems and processes vigilantly. Many have persevered through trying times, and the upcoming year presents an opportunity to rebuild and ensure sustainability. The Restaurant Association is dedicated to providing support and resources to help our members flourish.

2024 holds promise and potential for the restaurant industry, along with its fair share of challenges. We must remain adaptable, responsive to change, and committed to delivering the exceptional dining experiences our customers have come to expect. By seizing opportunities and collaborating, we can surmount obstacles and guarantee a prosperous year for our industry.

Our focus continues to be on working collaboratively to pathways for rebuilding, developing resilience and repositioning the hospitality sector for the future. 

Our industry is generating annual sales in excess of $15 billion (year end September 2023) and employing more than 145,000 people, across 19,500 businesses.

We remain committed to continuity planning and business resilience, to help members develop strategies through our support, services, tools and training to build their resilience. 

The Association itself is not immune to the challenges our industry is facing and we work hard as a team to try and balance this as much as possible. The Restaurant Association has already set out our vision for the future and how we can get there, in our Future of Hospitality Roadmap, which we continue to use as a guiding document to map out our priorities. We want out sector to be seen as a national leader: providing better, skilled workforces, sustainable and safer workplaces, more adequate resources and investment, to ensure a well-rounded, productive sector that provides a growth story for the wider New Zealand economy.

Skills shortages continue to plague the industry, however this has softened in our last member survey. However, this is will still be a key area to focus on for the Association in 2024 as we know this will continue. With that in mind we are continuing our key work in these areas, including Hospo Start, our industry accreditation programme, HospoCred and our professional development training.

In 2024 we know there will still be challenges on the horizon but at the Restaurant Association we are optimistic that the economy will start to pick up and we will start to see solid trade in our sector and continued growth. We have increased our voice and influence greatly over the last few years and we are in a good position to assist members through whatever challenges may be around the corner.