Quicker Liquor will cease the sale of alcohol on July 30 after Dunedin’s district licensing committee issued an eight-page decision against the store.
Chairman Colin Weatherall said the owners did not convince the committee of their suitability to hold a liquor licence.
"It was a challenging case, but we gave the applicant lots of time to convince the committee of their styles of management and ways of managing and in the end they weren’t able to convince us."
The decision said the date the licence would be cancelled was chosen to allow the owner time to redistribute unsold stock and arrange employment for staff.
"The committee has considered the evidence presented to it and has found the applicant unsuitable to hold an alcohol licence."
The hearing needed to be reconvened twice to allow time for the applicant to gather information "that should have been readily available", the decision said.
The first time the hearing was closed, it was to allow the owners to retrieve employment records and a staff roster.
Several weeks later when the committee reconvened, it decided to pause the hearing to allow the applicant time to compile training schedule information and store procedures.
The hearing was eventually closed a second time when the committee found the information provided was insufficient to satisfy it the applicant understood the legislative requirements and contents of the documents supplied.
Once the committee reconvened, it found the information provided all referred to parent company Super Liquor, not the premises in question.
The committee was "disappointed" the documents were not specific to Quicker Liquor.
The committee ultimately decided it was not confident the applicant had the ability to continue operating the premises at the level required by its subsidiary.
With the experience the applicant had, the committee was surprised Quicker Liquor was not run at a similar level to Super Liquor stores.
The decision only applied to the George St Quicker Liquor, and did not apply to the other stores owned by the applicant, Mr Weatherall said.
He said the applicant had a right to appeal the decision and the committee would welcome it if they chose to do so.
tim.scott@odt.co.nz , PIJF cadet reporter
