{"id":506875,"date":"2026-07-02T22:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/506875\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T22:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:00:14","slug":"northland-hospitality-struggles-as-rising-costs-wipe-out-sales-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/506875\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland hospitality struggles as rising costs wipe out sales gains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSo maybe the 4.6% doesn\u2019t feel as strong for some businesses … it really is looking at sales growth, it\u2019s not highlighting profitability. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven where sales have gone up, costs have as well, so it hasn\u2019t really translated yet into better times. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is showing some momentum, and hopefully we\u2019ll be gaining more as the year goes on.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asher Danim, who runs Cafe Jerusalem in Kerikeri<\/a> with his wife Victoria Denari, said the restaurant was \u201cstill surviving\u201d, though times were tough. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred per cent we are making less money because of all the rising costs,\u201d Danim said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s left, you pay the staff. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t put the prices up, so you make less money, but it\u2019s going okay. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still going up and down; some weeks are better than others.\u201d <\/p>\n

Duke of Marlborough part-owner Riki Kinnaird said times had been \u201creally tough\u201d for a while. <\/p>\n

He said while the Christmas and New Year period had been good, with events, functions and international spending, domestic spending had been in decline for the past nine months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn winter when there\u2019s no international visitors and fewer events, you can really see that trend continue. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now at a normal time of the year when New Zealand is 100% of our income, they\u2019re not spending as much and that\u2019s been going on a while. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s genuine nervousness about the [Middle East] war, people are not as confident, and that reduces the spend.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kinnaird said winter was usually quiet but this one seemed worse than normal. <\/p>\n

He was looking forward to October, when functions and weddings kicked off, along with the return of international visitors. <\/p>\n

\u201cKiwis believe we\u2019re in a funk. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some industries doing well, like farmers, but your average Kiwi is worried and not spending as much. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the Rumble in Russell was amazing; the whole town was full of fun and laughter and people, which shows when there\u2019s an event to focus on, people will spend.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"DukeDuke of Marlborough part-owner Riki Kinnaird says times are \u201creally tough\u201d but October will bring more bookings and international visitors. Photo \/ Peter de Graaf<\/p>\n

The Rumble in Russell<\/a> is a biennial charity sports event between politicians and local players that raises funds for the Rugby For Life Charitable Trust. <\/p>\n

The hospitality industry has faced numerous challenges<\/a> since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, including lockdowns, slow-to-open borders and declining domestic spend. <\/p>\n

Paired with rising costs for energy, food and insurance, businesses within the sector are facing extra pressure. <\/p>\n

That prompted Auckland restaurateur Sean Yarbrough<\/a>, founder of Broke Boy Taco, to issue an emotional plea for support, saying soaring food costs had left small business owners with little choice but to raise prices. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s never been a worse time to own a restaurant in history than now,\u201d Yarbrough told his 125,000 Instagram followers recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know some of y\u2019all are p***ed off at me for raising the prices, but I don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waldren said Restaurant Association members wanted \u201cstability\u201d<\/a> and called on whoever wins the election this year to listen to the hospitality industry. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospitality industry is made up of thousands of small business owners who operate on tiny margins,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen costs jump dramatically, there\u2019s nowhere they can absorb them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSo maybe the 4.6% doesn\u2019t feel as strong for some businesses … it really is looking at sales…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[80245,806,138,10166,802,27125,13988,3499,15557,111,139,1067,69,3111,801,667,1305,5652,4499,2069,3258,666,122260,102],"class_list":["post-506875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-afloat","tag-as","tag-business","tag-businesses","tag-costs","tag-expenses","tag-gains","tag-growth","tag-hospitality","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-rising","tag-sales","tag-show","tag-signs","tag-small","tag-stay","tag-struggles","tag-struggling","tag-wipe","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}