In a statement to the Otago Daily Times today, Tim Dondaldson, Foodstuffs South Island general manager retail, said the supermarket in the heart of the town in Dunmore St had depended on a mix of international and domestic tourists, local residents and the business community.
The shutting of international borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the number of customers shopping at the store.
"Due to the reduction in customers at New World Wanaka, the store predicts a significant reduction in turnover for the foreseeable future, which means the owners, who took ownership of the store in August 2019, have been left with no option but to reassess staff numbers and the other costs associated with running the store," Mr Donaldson said.
For some weeks now, the team at New World Wanaka have been working reduced hours while remaining on full pay.
Mr Donaldson said the store was committed to continuing to serve its local customers and domestic tourists, so the owners of New World Wanaka were currently going through a process to reduce the number of roles at the store from 134 to 105.
"Fulltime staff hours, which have traditionally been at 42½ hours per week are proposed to be 40 hours per week, which has the positive benefit of allowing the store to keep an additional six staff members employed," he said.
"It’s been a very tough decision to make, the team at New World Wanaka do a great job and the owners are doing all they can to support them, however, the business believes this is the right decision to enable New World Wanaka to be sustainable and continue to provide employment in the future, Mr Donaldson said.
"With the ski season and school holidays just around the corner the team are optimistic about the future and are looking forward to continuing to serve customers in the Wanaka community."
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One could easily propose that the owners and South Island Foodstuffs could weather the downturn in a "predicted" sales reduction and continue to allow all the staff to be employed. Firstly, because the staff will most likely be getting paid somewhat less in their pockets than the owners, which most likelly means every dollar means more to the staff members. Secondly, one assumes that the owners and Foodstuffs could show a little "grace" and see how it goes for sometime. I am quite sure, their pockets are a little deeper than the produce worker, the bakery worker, the trolley attendant, the check-out operator, et al.