Revenues up, however restaurant profits are down as cost of living and staff pressures bite hard

Hospitality is booming, despite staff shortages.

Data shows that restaurants, bars and cafes reported a boom in revenue in December, recording the highest earnings growth since the pandemic.

The data obtained by e-commerce software provider Lightspeed analysed over 10,000 venues across Australia.

NSW, Victoria and South Australian venues all recorded their largest month on month revenue growth: venues documented a combined total increase in takings of almost 29 per cent

Sydney venues saw the biggest year-on-year increase in August, with bars double revenue over 12 months.

“A strong hospitality industry is critical to communities right across the state – and the NSW government will continue to do whatever it can to support it, now and into the future,” NSW Hospitality and Racing Minister Kevin Anderson said.

North Rocks cafe Piccolo Me has seen business boom along with coffee demand.

“If you look at business outside of the core business parts, we’re seeing massive increases in sales and that’s due to people supporting local again, people getting coffees, having lunch … people missed that a lot during Covid,” co-owner Charlie El-Hachem said.

However, while revenues are up, for some venues profits are still down.

“Running a restaurant at the moment, the conversation has now turned towards the goods that we’re buying and the staffing … the cost of running the business is bigger than ever,” Corretto owner Kurtis Bosley.

Bosley said restaurant profits had halved in the past five years due to rising costs.

“We’ve got electricity, we’ve got water, the rural products that are coming into this space are more expensive than they’ve ever been.”

And while staff shortages remain a problem, there is hope for the industry.

“The biggest benefit of Covid is it allowed us to rethink our model, invest into things we were missing, and really propel – we’re looking at between 15 and 20 store openings by the end of this year,” El-Hachem said.

Jonathan Jackson - 16-1-23