By Marisa Bidois

Reflecting on the recent closure of Homeland, a distinguished beacon of culinary excellence and education in New Zealand, it’s a poignant moment for our hospitality sector.

Whilst it might not have been rising operational costs or tighter customer budgets that led to it, it’s a clear signal of the rough patch our restaurants and bars are facing.

Our sector is sensitive to shifts in discretionary spending, grappling with a persistent skills shortage, and operates on notoriously narrow margins. Comprised predominantly of small, independently owned businesses, we are still navigating the long road to recovery from the pandemic’s profound impacts.

However, it’s important to recognise the sector’s remarkable resilience, capacity for innovation, and consistent growth over the years, despite such setbacks. Hospitality touches the hearts of our community deeply; the emotional impact of seeing a beloved café or restaurant close its doors cannot be understated.

These establishments are more than just places to eat; they are woven into the fabric of our daily lives, hosting countless memories and moments of connection. The loss of Homeland therefore resonates not just as a business closure but as a reminder of how integral these spaces are to our collective identity and well-being.

In response to these challenges, and especially following the devastating impact of Covid-19, the Restaurant Association of New Zealand has been proactive in charting a strategic roadmap aimed at rebuilding and rejuvenating Aotearoa’s hospitality landscape. This roadmap was designed not just as a reaction to the pandemic but as a forward-thinking blueprint to ensure the long-term prosperity and innovation within our industry.

Three years into the implementation of this plan, we’ve witnessed tangible progress and achievements that highlight our effectiveness in securing governmental recognition and support for the hospitality sector. A notable milestone in this journey has been the appointment of Matt Doocey as the hospitality minister, a role we advocated for vigorously to ensure our sector receives the focused attention and support it deserves from central government.

With the change of government, we are now responding to the Minister of Finance’s call for actionable strategies to drive industry growth, designed to address immediate challenges while laying a robust foundation for the sector’s future.

Our plan focuses on resolving long-standing industry issues, bridging skills and training gaps, simplifying business operations, and fostering stronger partnerships between the industry and government. Each of these steps is crucial for creating a more resilient, innovative, and vibrant hospitality industry.

Our initiatives are about making real, meaningful changes in the hospitality landscape.

For instance, Hospostart, developed alongside the Ministry of Social Development, is a lifeline for those out of work, equipping them with the skills and confidence needed to dive into hospitality roles — a sector known for its dynamic and fast-paced environment. The goal? To not just train, but to transform lives by opening doors to stable employment in an industry that’s at the heart of New Zealand’s culture.

HospoCred takes the concept of excellence and embeds it into the fabric of our industry. This unique accreditation scheme is a roadmap for businesses to continually elevate their service, ambience and operational standards setting new benchmarks in hospitality.

These initiatives, many of which are cost-neutral, highlight that substantial improvements are achievable through smarter regulation, better alignment of resources, and closer collaboration between industry and policymakers.

The closure of venues like Homeland is more than the loss of a culinary institution; it serves as a catalyst for our industry to confront the vulnerabilities exposed by such events and to work towards a more secure and dynamic future.

The heart and soul of our industry lie in our incredible resilience, creativity, and united strength. Together, we’re not just ready to tackle the tough times head-on; we’re also setting the stage for a future that’s brighter than ever for New Zealand’s hospitality scene. We’re about breaking new ground, sparking innovation, and creating a world class hospitality scene.

Imagine a future where our hospitality scene isn’t just a big player in the economy but also a shining star in New Zealand’s culture, making life richer for locals and visitors alike. It’s a future we can all get behind, but it’s going to take teamwork — businesses, workers, foodies, and the government, all rolling up their sleeves. Together, we continue to grow a sustainable, welcoming, and cutting-edge industry that everyone can be proud of.

March 2024

Cost recovery proposal to maintain and expand New Zealand Food Safety’s core regulatory services under the Food Act 2014 

Introduction

The Restaurant Association of New Zealand (the Restaurant Association) welcomes the opportunity to submit the cost recovery proposal to maintain and expand New Zealand Food Safety’s core regulatory services under the Food Act 2014. 

While we recognise the need for the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) to recover costs associated with New Zealand Food Safety’s core regulatory services, we propose adjustments to ensure there is a fair balance between the costs paid by micro and small businesses as compared to medium and large. 

With respect to the expansion of NZFS’s core regulatory services, we believe that some of the proposals would be better delivered by industry bodies to ensure the support being delivered is responsive to the needs of businesses in our industry. 

We do not agree with the proposal to allocate costs for domestic food businesses based only on a per-site basis. We think the costs should be allocated based on business size, to better reflect the fact that the majority of food businesses are micro or small businesses and can not afford the large increase in levies as proposed. 

In appendix 1, we have proposed an alternative allocation of cost recovery levies based on business size. The size definition criteria used in these calculations are defined in the table below: 

Business size	FTE Share of industry
Micro-business	0-10 90%
Small business	11-20 7%
Medium business	21-50 2%
Large business	51+ 1%

Cost recovery of oversight services 

While we agree that domestic food businesses benefit from some of the proposed services, we oppose being seen as a default source of funding for those activities that would primarily benefit other sectors—as acknowledged several times over in the consultation document, and as defined by MPI’s Equity cost recovery principle. 

We acknowledge that MPI does not have legal powers to levy Territorial Authorities, however we submit that there are other avenues to recover costs from those who perform registration, verification and enforcement functions—including Territorial Authorities. 

To that end, the Restaurant Association recommends that a licensing fee be introduced for those performing registration, evaluation, verification and enforcement functions, to recover the costs of ‘oversight of co-regulator systems and services’ and ‘oversight of verification systems and services’. 

Recommendation 1: that a licensing fee be introduced for those organisations performing registration, verification and enforcement functions.

Appendix 1 outlines our proposed alternative allocation of cost recovery with ‘oversight of co-regulator systems and services’ and ‘oversight of verification systems and services’ separated out, to be recovered from licensing fees. We recommend this model be used to calculate year one and two fees as per the proposal from NZ Food Safety. 

As noted on page 6 of the consultation document, ‘Evaluators’ under the Food Act are specialist service providers with the skills to identify critical hazards and evaluate the effectiveness of control points in food production processes. Likewise, ‘Verification Agencies’ are private companies and Territorial Authorities that provide independent assurance checks that a food business is successfully applying the food safety rules. It would make sense for these actors to pay a fee to be licensed to perform these activities. 

Should those currently performing these duties not be willing to pay a registration fee, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss ways that these services can be undertaken by industry associations, in order to be standardised across the country. 

Business education and support services 

We submit that businesses are more receptive to education and support services delivered by an industry association, rather than by a central regulator. To encourage uptake of these services by food businesses, we recommend that business education and support services as proposed in the consultation instead be delivered by industry associations like the Restaurant Association. 

Recommendation 2: that business education and support services as proposed in the consultation be delivered by industry associations.

Partnering with industry associations to deliver business education and support services will contribute to lowering the overall amount that is levied on businesses, as we already have the infrastructure and capability in place to deliver large-scale education and support programmes. We believe that industry associations are able to deliver the proposed outputs for a considerably lower rate than proposed in the consultation document, and would welcome further discussions on how this could work. 

Not only do industry associations like ourselves hold extensive industry knowledge about the challenges faced by our members, but we also hold well-established local and national networks with a team of staff spread across the country. 

In delivering these programmes, we would welcome the opportunity to co-design these training modules with NZ Food Safety, to ensure that regulatory and Ministry requirements are being met, while also servicing the actual needs of businesses in our industry. 

Industry Association referrals 

The regulatory environment for the hospitality industry is fractured and confusing. While industry associations like ourselves navigate that environment and advise our members, many food businesses do not avail themselves of our services. 

We recommend that registration bodies for food businesses—the Ministry of Primary Industries and Territorial Authorities—promote relevant industry associations at the point of registration. For example, when a food business registers with either MPI or their local council, we believe they should be provided information on the relevant industry associations that represent them. 

Recommendation 3: that registration bodies for food businesses promote relevant industry associations at the point of registration.

These referrals would assist with a greater understanding of the hospitality landscape, and ensure food businesses know where they can go for advice and guidance on applying relevant rules, regulations and legislation.

Appendix 

Appendix 1: Proposed cost recovery allocations 2027/28

Domestic food business levy forecast 2027/28
Amount to recover ($m) 5.777
Number of sites from which to recover costs 50,239
Current proposed levy per site $115
Restaurant Association cost-sharing proposal Sites	Amount raised
Micro business, $60 per site 45,215	2,712,900
Small business, $75 per site 3,516	263,700
Medium business, $100 per site 1,005	100,500
Large business, $125 per site 503	60,360
Amount recovered from food businesses	3,134,945
Licensing Fee – co-regulator systems and services	1,820,000
Licensing Fee – verification systems and services	766,000
Total levy revenue raised	5,720,945

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.

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.

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, 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 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.

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.

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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 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.”

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.

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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

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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. 

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

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.

Restaurant / Bar owner, Hawke’s Bay

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.

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Cafe owner, Canterbury

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.

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.

Find out more about the Report here.