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Closing the doors of one of its premises and limiting the opening hours of another is ‘‘a bleak day for Gore,’’ Mataura Licensing Trust general manager Mark Paterson says.
The trust’s board made the decision on Thursday to close the Longford Tavern on December 1 and limit the opening hours of the Thomas Green Public House and Dining Room from next week.
Trust general manager Mark Paterson said a ‘‘mass of exodus of staff’’ made it impossible to staff the operations.
‘‘We are in dire situations in terms of staff.’’
Even though it was the
Traffers Hotel that was reduced in staff to a manager and duty manager, the board decided to close the Longford Tavern.
‘‘It’s pretty much a no-brainer.
‘‘We’ve been backed into a corner and it is pretty much because of Covid.’’
The Longford was the better choice because its premises were not owned by the trust. Traffers had more gaming machines which meant more income could be filtered back to the community through the Trusts Community Foundation and it also had a TAB.
‘‘Longford has been unprofitable for a number of years whereas Traffers is not.’’
The staff from the Longford will transfer to Traffers and other sites.
The Thomas Green was short of a manager, assistant manager, head chef, sous chef and duty manager.
From next week it would open from Thursday to Sunday until December 19, after which its future was uncertain.
‘‘At the 19th of December we have no-one to cook meals or run the place.’’
The board had raised wages to try to keep staff.
‘‘Staff are sick of getting abused, they’re sick of worrying about things that are coming including [Covid] traffic lights . . . and they’re getting more money thrown at them because every industry, every business is looking for staff . . . and there’s only a finite number of staff in the district.’’
The measures were not because the trust was in trouble.
‘‘We owe no money and we’ve got solid cash flow.
‘‘We’ve got enough money to survive.’’