8 October, 2021
With views over the Murray River, Albury’s River Deck Cafe has been one of regional NSW’s most popular destination spots for locals and visitors, especially over the summer season. Owner Alex Smit hopes that will be the case again in December as the State begins its reopening roadmap on October 11.
Smit, a member of the NSW Small Business Commission’s Small Business Reference Group, has been preparing for a return to more normal times; making sure the right procedures are in place, redesigning the menu, as well as hiring and training five new staff – one full-time chef and four front of house staff.
By the end of the year, Smit is hopeful demand would be strong enough that he can bring on 15 more staff, including a second chef, kitchenhands and more front of house staff. He is aware that attracting skilled staff in the area has been difficult because of the pandemic. “There’s definitely going to be this intense competition for talent in hospitality and I wanted to make sure we were on the front foot,” he says.
Beyond the traditional online advertising and business networks, Smit reached out to ex-staff and was able to secure 3-4 for the summer; mostly university students who would have otherwise spent their summers backpacking around the world, he points out.
With the announcement of the NSW reopening roadmap last month, Smit has been looking at ways to ensure his business is compliant with vaccination rules, including capacity restrictions, ahead of 11 October when the State begins to reopen after reaching the 70% double vaccination target.
Like many regional hospitality and tourism businesses, River Deck has endured extremely tough times. The business has gone from employing 35-40 staff to around 20, including a head chef and a front of house manager. While the business has remained open for dine in and takeaway for most of Greater Sydney’s lockdown, visitors or tourists have been unable to travel to Albury because of border and regional travel restrictions.
“We wouldn’t have been able to stay afloat through lockdown this year without Government support,” says Smit. “We’re a cash-flow dependent business.”
River Deck Café received JobSaver and the initial $7,500 COVID business grant. The business also applied for the $1500 small business rebate scheme which it used to pay council water rates.
Last year, the business wasn’t eligible for the NSW small business grant as its payroll was too high, however, it was able to get JobKeeper and the cashflow boost. “Had we not received the assistance, we would have probably had to wind up the business,” Smit says.
Head Chef Ludo Baulacky and owner Alex Smit.
Going forward, he says the business is in a better position to apply for other grants if they become available. “Now that we have a roadmap and a good idea of what is ahead and knowing that other countries have opened up, that gives us a lot of business confidence and puts us in a better position to take advantage of opportunities and apply for future grants that make sense to our business.”
Before COVID-19, River Deck experienced success as a premium tourism business, winning gold at the 2019 NSW Tourism Awards and bronze at the 2020 Tourism Australia Awards. The business, which started as a summer pop-up coffee kiosk 10 years ago before becoming a permanent fixture in 2016, provided a unique offering – a quality food and beverage experience in a beautiful location on the river dubbed “the beach of Albury”.
For now, Smit is taking a pragmatic approach, focusing on the core restaurant and café business, rebuilding a team and making sure the business is set-up for the gradual return of demand.
“We imagine there will be some ups and downs in the short term, but we hope that by the time school holidays arrive in December, we are back with travellers coming through Albury from Sydney and Melbourne,” he says.
“Opening up, there’s a sense you can refresh, dust yourself off, put your best foot forward and get on with it again. A kind of Phoenix-like moment.”
Alex Smit is owner of River Deck Cafe.