Blow to business

Shoheli Sunjida had just 10 days of trading before Victoria was put into another lockdown. 239342_05 Photo: STEWART CHAMBERS

By Danielle Kutchel, Shelby Brooks and Tyler Lewis

Deciding to start a new business venture in 2021 seemed like a safe undertaking, yet only 10 days after Shoheli Sunjida took over House of Burgers in Berwick, the state was plunged into another lockdown.

Ms Sunjida and her husband only began trading from Tuesday 18 May but had several big bookings for the weekend that had to be cancelled with a day’s notice on Thursday 27 May following the seven-day lockdown announcement.

She described it as just bad luck and a learning experience, deciding to keep the business open for takeaway.

“We felt we had to keep it open for takeaway for the employees to get some work,” she said.

“In the food industry, if we’re not selling we can’t employ staff.”

Over the weekend of May 29 and 30, Ms Sunjida estimated business was down 60 per cent.

While some business owners are persisting with takeaway and delivery options, The Cornerstone in Pakenham has completely shut its doors.

Feeling as though the business didn’t have the sales in takeaway and delivery, co-owner Jess Taylor said they were at risk of losing more money by stocking up and paying staff if they didn’t shut the café’s doors for the length of the lockdown.

“I think it was about half-way through the big down lockdown last year, we realised that the income wasn’t enough to support all of the outgoing, we thought we might be able to save a bit more if we just shut completely,” Ms Taylor said.

“It was pretty difficult for them (the staff), a lot of them are university students. Everything was changing for everyone, in a way they still got to stay home and do their studies.

“I think having them come in and do nothing, me trying to think of what I can get them to do while there were no customers was a little unfair to waste their time like that.

“On the financial side, we were lucky because JobKeeper supported us a lot, it was beneficial.

“There are a lot of businesses that are suffering worse than us, we found that we can reduce the outgoings – we don’t have to keep ordering fresh milk every day, it was one of those things,” she said.

Leonie Thorne from Pakenham’s All About Chocolates and Lollies said she has been busy delivering gift hampers to people across the local area.

“If you get something nice on your door, you feel good,“ she said.

Ms Thorne said people had been stocking up on bulk lolly orders to get through the lockdown on her new website and they could ’click and collect’ at the store.

“Being a micro-business, the lockdown doesn’t affect us too much,“ she said.

On Sunday 30 May, the State Government announced a $250.7 million Circuit Breaker Business Support Package which is expected to help to 90,000 Victorian businesses that have been affected by the new restrictions.

The package includes $190 million in $2500 grants for businesses, $40.7 million in $3500 grants for liquor licence and food certificate holders and $20 million for event operators.

Bass MP Jordan Crugnale said she wanted to thank businesses for doing the right thing by closing.

“We are doing what we can to support our business community most affected by this circuit breaker, including those in the hospitality, retail, events and creative industries with further specific and targeted support,“ she said.

“I really encourage businesses to go to the Business Victoria website and register their interest in the Business Costs Assistance Program.

“Our package is much broader this time around in terms of eligibility as it includes sole traders and also a specific fund for our events industry.“

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said the federal government needed to urgently follow suit with a JobKeeper-like wage subsidy.

“When Australians needed support in 2020, both state and federal governments were there. Now is not the time for the feds to abandon Victorians,“ he said.

Ms Crugnale said she agreed with Mr Guerra’s comments.

“We need a JobKeeper style wage subsidy for our workers. The Federal Government are able to do this, it is in their remit, capacity and can do it swiftly, they just need to be willing to continue supporting Australian workers living here in Victoria,“ she said.

With businesses around the region crying out for support, Callen O’Brien, treasurer of Berwick Business Group (BBG) said there was uncertainty around eligibility for the State Government’s relief programs

While he said any support was useful, he added that many businesses don’t know enough about the packages yet.

“There’s one for licenced venues…and there’s one for other businesses but there’s actually no definition around it at the moment and there’s more information to come,” he said.

“It comes down to what businesses can apply for it. There’s some generic information saying you’ll get a $2500 grant if you’ve been impacted by lockdown and can’t work remotely but that’s all we know at the moment.”

He said many hospitality businesses around Berwick had not opened for takeaway this time because it wouldn’t yield them enough to pay the bills.

“It was OK previously when JobKeeper was available because they essentially didn’t have to pay wages because that was being reimbursed, but now that JobKeeper is finished they’ve got to meet their rent, make the cost of paying for food and drinks and pay for wages.

“Click and collect is OK for some businesses but it doesn’t come close to paying the bills for most small businesses because people are worried about being out and about so people don’t want to do click and collect,” he said.

Added to that was the uncertainty over when the latest lockdown would end.

Mr O’Brien said many businesses would struggle to make it through this time.

“It’s an unknown for everybody at the moment, especially for those businesses that are having to find money for wages.

“It adds to the burden that most of our businesses have had over last 12-18 months, it continues on and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

“If we can get people vaccinated that will be the first big step in getting a lot of headway through this.”

Liberal Gembrook MP Brad Battin said he’d heard that many small businesses were beginning to find they were ineligible for what he called the State Government’s “sugar hit”.

“The government’s communication around this is all designed around getting as much media attention for themselves as the good guys and as least as possible at the fact they’re not genuinely assisting, and … they’re targeting it to industries they support or will get the best media attention,” he said.

“We know places like gyms around this area are going to struggle during this lockdown and so many businesses went through everything, including their own personal savings to survive last year, and the government has turned around and said ‘sorry we’re closing you down but not offering support’.

“We 100 per cent support that there needs to be health action but keeping most of the state open like NSW has done and other states around country is the best form of welfare you can have where businesses can stay open, operate and keep employment up.”

He hit back at suggestions the Federal Government should step up and provide JobKeeper again to affected businesses.

“As governments do these circuit breaker lockdowns for short periods of time, local State Governments are responsible for the outcomes,” he said.

Jason Wood, Federal La Trobe MP, also said there would be no further Federal support coming for Victorian businesses.

“It’s rewarding bad behaviours if every time there’s a lockdown the Federal Government gets called on by the State Government to put more funding in to support it.

“In saying that, I feel terrible for businesses especially who have to again go through another, I’d say unnecessary lockdown,” he added.

Mr Wood said the Federal Government had provided $45.2 billion to Victoria throughout the Covid pandemic, including $28 billion for JobKeeper to over 310,000 businesses.

The Federal Government had also provided $5 billion in coronavirus supplement payments to more than 750,000 Victorians, he said.

“We also continue to provide the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment which is a lump sum payment to help you during the 14 days you need to self-isolate, quarantine or care for someone,” Mr Wood added.

“So far $18.5 million has been paid out to Victoria since the program came in last year.”

But as lockdown continues, Mr Battin and Mr O’Brien called on the community to continue shopping local – buying takeaway food and opting to click and collect goods from local small businesses – to help get them through.

“It’s more important than ever,” Mr O’Brien said.