Sydney sushi-pizza restaurant blames award wages for early demise

The owners of a Surry Hills sushi-pizza restaurant have blamed high wages for the demise of their business after just three months.

Sash was been placed into liquidation with debts of $436,000, with co-owners Kyle Stagoll and Dave Nelson saying they had “lost everything”.

The biggest single creditor is hospitality equipment hire company Silver Chef Rentals, owed $283,700.

"Most of our competitors who have been successful over the past few years have been paying staff under the award rate, it seems the only way venues can stay ahead. Does that mean hospo workers are drastically over paid for the value they produce for a business? Probably," Stagoll told Fairfax. 

“We always paid the award and above to all staff. You simply cannot otherwise the fines are massive. If we weren't paying the award we'd probably still be open.”

Stagoll also blamed the popularity of food delivery services behind their failure.

“Uber Eats has really killed midweek dining – never in our wildest dreams did we think we would be as quiet as we were midweek in the last few months. Our Melbourne business is similar – fully booked on a Saturday night … but all week we can’t get anyone in there,” he said.

Stagoll also said that their debts are in part due to the sum of $900,000 they spent on the restaurant’s fit-out and the weather.

"Originally the business got off to a flying start and it was looking great, then the election, double long week[ends] and cold weather hit and like most venues nearby our revenue dropped about 40 per cent and a new business with loans couldn't survive," he said.

Sheridan Randall, 30^th July 2019