Coronavirus: Madam Woo latest Christchurch restaurant to close its doors
Sunday, 10 May 2020
Christchurch's Madam Woo restaurant will close its doors permanently as it becomes the latest casualty of the Covid-19 crisis.
Eight staff at the Malaysian restaurant, co-founded by celebrity chef Josh Emett, will lose their jobs.
Fleur Caulton — chief executive and co-founder of Go To Collection, which owns nine Madam Woo, Hawker and Roll and Rata Restaurants across New Zealand — said the Christchurch business had been challenging prior to the coronavirus crisis.
'Covid put the nail in the head.'
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Caulton said wording in the lease agreement allowed the company to exit the lease at the St Asaph St building, which was not always an easy thing to do.
'We have had a good look at the entire business. It's a very difficult decision to make,' she said.
'We're doing our best to make sure our business is viable on the other side. It's a really hard time for everybody.'
Caulton said Hawker and Roll, on the corner of Cashel Mall and Oxford Tce, was in a good position and would definitely reopen.
The company was also pushing ahead with opening another Hawker and Roll at Commercial Bay in central Auckland.
The Christchurch Madam Woo restaurant was at the centre of a hepatitis A scare in January when a chef prepared food there over two days. Several diners had to be tracked down and vaccinated.
One of the biggest challenges facing the hospitality sector was the unknown, Caulton said.
'We just don't know how people are going to behave and what people are going to do.'
She said it was hard to know if moving to Alert Level 2 sooner would have helped, but allowing regional travel again and opening up trans-Tasman borders would make a real difference to hospitality.
The Government will decide on Monday when the country will move into level 2, which will allow more businesses to reopen, but under strict social distancing conditions.
Madam Woo is just one of several restaurants and hospitality businesses to announce permanent closures after failing to survive the lockdown.
Hospitality New Zealand Canterbury branch president Peter Morrison said there would be even more closures if the Government did not do more to help businesses.
'We need to know whether they are going to carry on the wage subsidy.'
Morrison said the Government could also consider doing what Australia has done and give cash handouts to businesses.
'It's tough. It's really tough out there.'
He said moving to level 2 sooner would have made a big difference to businesses, but the association understood why the Government had not.
Level 2 would help some businesses get through, but they could not operate anywhere near 100 per cent because there were too many costly conditions, Morrison said.
Other Canterbury hospitality businesses to go under during the lockdown include Christchurch hospitality chain Hoop Groop, Hoop Victoria (trading as Sister Kong) and Yaki Welder (trading as Bar Yoku & Salut! Salut!), which went into liquidation on April 21.
The liquidators' report said it was still investigating how much was owned to creditors across the group, but employees were owed about $20,000 and other creditors about $180,000.
Etheredge, which traded as Pita Pit in Rangiora, went into liquidation on April 3 due to a drop in trade following Covid-19. Secured creditors were owed $104,000 and unsecured creditors $10,000. It employed seven staff.
Salt n Pepper, which operated a café, restaurant and bar and sold fresh fruits and vegetables in Hanmer Springs, went into liquidation on April 22, owing about $218,000.
Hanmer Springs' Heritage Hotel announced last week it was closing, with the loss of 40 full time equivalent jobs.
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