Cafes thrown a cash flow lifeline

JULIA WADE

Under the heavy limits set by Level 4, a handful of local cafes – including Sandbar Eatery, Dizzy Lizzy’s Milkbar, Brewed As Collective, BA cafe at Mangawhai Golf Club, The Cakery at Tea & Tart, and Waipu’s Little Red Coffee – sought some financial relief and support at SOScafe.nz, a website offering a ‘pay it forward’ type rescue scheme.

Created by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s David Downs, the concept is to provide eateries with much-needed cash now from buying e-vouchers for favourite snacks and redeem the vouchers at a later date.

Brewed As Collective (BAC) directors Gareth and Anna Wilson say they had over 70 vouchers purchased, which was a great help to cash flow for the Mangawhai Heads coffeehouse although Gareth admits to being a bit hesitant at first.

“I wondered that if we had a massive influx of vouchers, then once open, there would be no cash flow coming in to support the ongoing cashing in of vouchers.”

However he says the cafe was ‘fortunate enough’ to operate under Level 3 providing delivery and takeaways for eager loyal customers. Vouchers from the SOScafe scheme will be honoured once BAC is back operating at full speed.

“A few people even just donated a little bit of money instead of a voucher!” Gareth says. “The support also gave us confidence in the willingness of the community to support us during this time… truly touching.”

Tea & Tarte co-owner Louisa Lee says SOScafe was an ‘awesome idea’ which snowballed support of local cafes across the country.

“Like many businesses, even though our sales stopped, not all our expenses did. We were extremely lucky that our landlords, the Village Wines waived our rent,” she says. “Being a very new business, SOScafe gave us a lot of hope near the end of Level 4 and also some extra cash to help starting back up at Level 3.”

Brewed As Collective has diversified with deliveries to help with cashflow.

Louisa Lee and Karla Chapman (sitting) ready to serve ‘Tea & Tarte’ back to locals.