Chocolaterie fears it may not survive coronavirus conditions

THE impacts of the coronavirus pandemic continue to be felt locally, with one Surf Coast tourist drawcard uncertain if it will survive the ongoing challenges of fewer visitors and a subsequent drop in revenue.
Tourism numbers have plummeted in the Great Ocean Road region, initially from the ban on international visitors but more recently because of state government restrictions on movement, which returned to a Stage 3 lockdown in regional Victoria last week.
Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery executive director Ian Neeland said his Bellbrae business was like many others in the tourism sector and was struggling to survive the knock-on effects of the pandemic.
“Since the Stage 3 restrictions have started on the Surf Coast, our visitor numbers are now down 95 per cent on last year and thus our in-store sales only 5 per cent compared to last year.
“Our café remains open for takeaway and our showroom for chocolate purchases. However locals are being conservative in their movements as they should be, Melbourne is in lockdown, and interstate visitors are not travelling as they cannot get back to their home states without going into quarantine.”
He said the chocolaterie’s innovation in developing online products – including the Hot Chocolate Festival, which has created kits for pick up or delivery throughout August – had substantially increased online sales, so total income from in-store sales and online sales is at about 25 per cent of last year’s figures.
“Without these online sales we would have closed, because JobKeeper supplements would not have been sufficient to allow us to trade with only 30 or 40 people coming thru the doors each day.
“The deferral of fixed costs commitments including finance and GST has helped keep the doors open and our core team employed. We are down from 85 staff to just under 30.
The challenge of meeting the deferrals later this year is what we must face and overcome somehow, or the chocolaterie will be lost from the Surf Coast.”
He suggested there needed to be some form of restructuring support for tourism industries to enable them to carry on in the long term in addition to the JobKeeper subsidy.
The Coalition Government’s economic statement last month revealed Australia had a record deficit of $85 billion in 2019-20, largely driven by a rise in spending in response to the coronavirus and falls in revenue.
The Coalition has already extended and modified its JobKeeper wage subsidy program but is not expected to fully reveal its spending measures until the budget is handed down in October.
Corangamite Labor federal member Libby Coker is continuing to call for more government support for the tourism sector in the Geelong region.
She said she would not criticise the Coalition for the deficit, and that Labor would have done much the same if the party were in power, but some of the Coalition’s stimulus spending was “misdirected”.
“There should be more support for our struggling tourism sector, especially here in Corangamite along the Surf Coast, Great Ocean Road and in the Bellarine.”