Pub, restaurant closures loom as staffing shortage bites Mataura Licensing Trust

Friday, 19 November 2021

The Mataura Licensing Trust will close Gore's Longford Tavern on December 5 because of staffing shortages at the MLT.

Two Mataura Licensing Trust establishments are set to close because of staffing shortages.

The MLT board made the call late on Thursday that it would close the Longford Tavern which has been in existence since 1965.

The Thomas Green restaurant and pub in Gore is almost certain to close as well unless more staff can be found during the next month.

From next week the Thomas Green will be scaled back from a seven day a week operation to opening from Thursday through to Sunday.

Mataura Licensing Trust general manager Mark Paterson says it’s a sad day at the organisation has had to close the Longford Tavern because of staffing shortage at the MLT.

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However, if the MLT was unable to find new staff it too would close on December 19 when some current staff finish up.

Given the MLT need to find a manager, head chef, a sous chef, and another chef, the situation does look bleak for the Thomas Green.

The Mataura Licensing Trust will close the Thomas Green pub and restaurant in Gore on December 19 if it can not find more staff.

MLT general manager Mark Paterson said the Thomas Green restaurant and pub had not always been a profitable business, but they were determined to try to find the required staff to keep it open.

With the Traffers pub in Gore to have just two staff left from the start of December, it has prompted the closure of the Longford Tavern on Sunday, December 5.

The Longford staff will transfer to Traffers.

Paterson said there were various reasons behind the decision to close Longford, including the fact that the Longford Tavern had not been profitable for 10 years, while Traffers was profitable.

Another factor was that the MLT own the Traffers building, while the Longford Tavern building was leased from the Gore Country Music Club.

There were also 15 pokie machines at Traffers, where the Longford Tavern has just eight which Paterson said would help the MLT in its ability to return gaming profits to the community.

Paterson, who has worked for the MLT for 35 years, which included a stint as the Longford’s manager, said the past couple of days has been the toughest at the organisation.

The looming vaccination certificate requirement for hospitality establishments was not behind the high level of staff leaving, Patterson said.

He put the staffing struggles down to an industry-wide shortage which in turn had led to staff poaching.

Attracting and retaining staff in Gore was a challenge, Paterson said.

“You don’t interview [chefs] now, they interview you,” Paterson said about the demand for staff.

He said the MLT board had put an extra $200,000 towards its wage bill to try to stem the flow of staff leaving, but that has not worked. That was on top of a 6.5 percent pay rise in April, Patterson added.

“We’ve used all our resources available. We’ve spent thousands and thousands on advertising. We’ve called in every favour under the sun. We’ve just been put up against a wall and there is no way out.”

In June Invercargill Licensing Trust chief executive Chris Ramsay raised concerns about staffing shortages, indicating the ILT would look at closing establishments on Mondays if the problem got worse.

Five months on Ramsay said for the ILT the situation had not got any better or any worse.

Although he pointed out they had not been as busy through Covid-19 which had eased the staffing challenges.

Ramsay felt the pool of employees in the industry had shrunk as people through the pandemic had chosen to leave the industry for a different career with a nine to five job.

On the flipside, Ramsay said there were now a lot of opportunities for those that want to make a career in hospitality.