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Speaker 1: Well, the first liquidata's report into the iconic Auckland restaurant

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Speaker 1: SPQR has been issued today. SPQR owes more than two

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Speaker 1: million dollars. It owes IID almost one and a half

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Speaker 1: million in payroll taxes and GST staff rowed one hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty five thousand dollars in wages is holiday pay.

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Speaker 1: Liam Dan is The Herald's Business editor at large and

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Speaker 1: is with us get Aliam. Hey, Jack, this is pretty ugly, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Like so this is you.

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Speaker 2: Know, obviously SPQR is a shock and there's some things

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Speaker 2: going on there. But you know, what we're hearing is

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Speaker 2: really more and more from the hospitality sector that there

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Speaker 2: are a number of probably quite i don't know word iconics,

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Speaker 2: overused but well established Auckland institutions that are really on

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Speaker 2: the brink at the moment. They're really struggling. You know,

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Speaker 2: I heard from the owner of Avachi that that she's

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Speaker 2: she's concerned. They're trying to get a sort of a

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Speaker 2: campaign going because you know, they've struggled through COVID and

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Speaker 2: the lockdowns and all that stuff, and then they've run

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Speaker 2: into this supposed to be a rebound out of that

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Speaker 2: and of course they've run into this wall of high

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Speaker 2: costs and high interest rates keeping people at home, and

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Speaker 2: so you know, we know, I look at the data

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Speaker 2: and it's I think the A and Z card spinning

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Speaker 2: data showed that restaurants and bars were down about six

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Speaker 2: point three percent in the last year. Now that's that's

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Speaker 2: nominal spending. So even you know that all their costs

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Speaker 2: are on top of that. And so if you've got

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Speaker 2: high debt and you've got cash, you know, but.

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Speaker 1: You just spin's going down, costs going up.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. In fact, I looked at the nominal

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Speaker 2: spend on all hospitality according to stats n Z in

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Speaker 2: the last quarter was it's exactly the same number that

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Speaker 2: it was pre COVID. So that's like.

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Speaker 1: Flatlining, no accounting for inflation, no accounting for costs and

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Speaker 1: all that stuff.

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Speaker 2: So these businesses are going backwards. The owners are often

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Speaker 2: not paying themselves a wage at this point. And of

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Speaker 2: course we all we're all getting excited now we're going, oh,

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Speaker 2: we can see the interest rates are going to come down,

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Speaker 2: and there's light at the end of the tunnel. But

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Speaker 2: we know from previous economic cycles that business liquidations, unemployment,

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Speaker 2: you know, the credit credit crunch stuff and mortgage e saales,

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Speaker 2: these these bits of data lag, so it's almost worse.

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Speaker 2: You start to start to hear the market start talking

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Speaker 2: about all the good news, and there are still some

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Speaker 2: people really struggling out there, and that's what we're at

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Speaker 2: the moment really.

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Speaker 1: So, I mean, two million dollars is a lot that's

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Speaker 1: been building for some time. What are the liquid to

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Speaker 1: say about their plan for the company selling off a

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Speaker 1: sets and stuff?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, look, I'm not completely across what happens next there,

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Speaker 2: I think. You know, you look at that amount of money, though,

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Speaker 2: and you've got to wonder whether really they've held on

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Speaker 2: too long, just just but you know, SPQR it feels

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Speaker 2: like something that just was sort of meant to be there.

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Speaker 2: It's a sort of an institution. As long as I've

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Speaker 2: been in Auckland, which is since about the time that

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Speaker 2: it started early nineties.

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Speaker 1: Are you were always there with your flash suits?

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Speaker 2: Well no, not quite. I remember going in the nineties

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Speaker 2: and feeling hopelessly out of my depth. You know, it

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Speaker 2: was such a big deal to go in there and

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Speaker 2: there be a shortened street star and you know, probably

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Speaker 2: probably probably carry with them there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it should be the first time.

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Speaker 2: A bet it, I'm sure, yeah, but yeah, no, it's

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Speaker 2: you know, but so there's there's two things. There is

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Speaker 2: a cyclical thing and there is a structural thing. You know,

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Speaker 2: people do change bars and restaurants to cycle over. You

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Speaker 2: will go to new places, and there is obviously a

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Speaker 2: lot of turnover in that sector. But I guess the

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Speaker 2: message is if you're you know, we're going to go

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Speaker 2: out and about spring is going to come along, Everyone's

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Speaker 2: going to feel better, the interest rates are going to

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Speaker 2: come down. You want to go out to your local bar.

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Speaker 2: It just might not be there if you can't get

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Speaker 2: out and support them in the next few months.

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Speaker 1: And I know that this isn't necessarily the suggestion, but

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Speaker 1: I mean that they're unlikely to get much help from

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Speaker 1: central government.

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Speaker 2: Right No, And I don't think I don't suppose they

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Speaker 2: they particularly want it at this point because you know,

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Speaker 2: it's there isn't anything that the government can do. It's

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Speaker 2: really down to people getting out and because let's face

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Speaker 2: at the government and Thereserve Bank are trying to put

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Speaker 2: a curb on spending, that that switch will you know,

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Speaker 2: there'll be that will it'll change, It'll change there's going

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Speaker 2: to be a flick of that switch, but it just

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Speaker 2: may come too late for some of these businesses.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for your time, Lean, I appreciate it. New Zealand

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Speaker 1: Herald Business Here for at large, Liam Dan. For more

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Speaker 1: from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to news talks

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