01_QHA_July_Online

FEATURE
image credit: Canungra House
image courtesy: Tourism and Events Queensland
QHA REVIEW | 22
“We closed our restaurant – we had picnics and we
just focused solely on picnics.
“Wages have gone down, food costs have gone
down. Having a regional restaurant is hard work.
“With the restaurant being closed, it’s just allowed us
to focus more on the picnics.
“We get increases in our turnover while not
increasing, necessarily, our wages and costs.
“Our biggest day for us is Mother’s Day. Three years
ago we broke $20k for the day on picnics and the
restaurant being open. In 2019 we did $30k – this
year we did $67,600 in picnics – and we did 267
pizzas on the day on top of the picnics.”
Shane said they did not intend to re-open the
restaurant, however, it would still be available for
group bookings or events.
Another element Shane said he’d noticed out of
COVID was that customers were becoming more
strongly focused on buying local which had been
good news for the sales volumes of their wines.
“They’re looking for authentic local experiences
or products – they seem to be doing a lot of local
boutique shopping as well and that’s been great for
us,” he said.
ANOTHER ELEMENT SHANE SAID HE’D NOTICED OUT
OF COVID WAS THAT CUSTOMERS WERE BECOMING
MORE STRONGLY FOCUSED ON BUYING LOCAL
WHICH HAD BEEN GOOD NEWS FOR THE SALES
VOLUMES OF THEIR WINES.
As an industry Shane said COVID-19 had provided
a strong opportunity for people to engage with
businesses, and for businesses to do the right thing.
“If you’re not having a cancellation policy now - do
we want to go back and have a cancellation policy
after all this – if people are doing the right thing by
you?
“We’ve not increased our prices substantially – even
running 90 per cent occupancy.
“There’s been some talk of people putting their
prices up really high.
“You should be happy with the occupancy and the
rate you’ve got.”