Tax Changes Positive For Hospo, Kiwisaver Changes Raise Concern
The Restaurant Association is also pleased to see that the Minister for Tourism and Hospitality will be responsible for $190 million of revenue from the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy in the 2025/26 financial year. More >>
Supporting Hospitality As An Economic Driver And Global Attraction Crucial For Budget 2025
Wednesday, 21 May 2025, 8:06 am | Restaurant Association of NZ
'The ever-changing regulatory environment has added to the pressure our industry has faced in recent years, and we've appreciated working closely with Ministers to identify how our regulatory environment can be simplified - without sacrificing ... More >>
Hospitality Industry Reset Campaign Gathers Momentum With More Than 3500 Signatures In First Week
Thursday, 17 June 2021, 6:50 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
In the grips of a staffing crisis, the hospitality industry is making its feelings heard with its petition calling for a reset on the Government's proposed immigration policy reset gathering more than 3500 signatures in under a week. The campaign, nicknamed ... More >>
Hospitality Sector's Good Neighbour & Hall of Fame Awards
Thursday, 28 September 2017, 8:18 am | Restaurant Association of NZ
Hospitality Sector Champions Good Neighbour and Hall of Fame Awards In front of industry peers the Restaurant Association of New Zealand celebrated two of its best and brightest as Auckland's Sir George Fistonich was inducted to the Association's ... More >>
Restaurant Association support for Kaikoura hospitality
Monday, 21 November 2016, 12:37 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
Auckland, 21 November 2016 – Representatives from the Restaurant Association of New Zealand, the leading industry organisation for restaurants, cafes and other members of the hospitality sector have travelled to Kaikoura today to offer support to local ... More >>
Hawke's Bay hospitality awards get national support
Monday, 21 September 2015, 4:20 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
Thanks to the Restaurant Association of New Zealand , the Hawke's Bay Hospitality Awards are living on to celebrate excellence among the region's food and beverage merchants. More >>
New Strategic Direction for Restaurant Association
Monday, 22 December 2014, 4:01 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
New Strategic Direction for Restaurant Association Auckland, 22 December 2014 – The Restaurant Association of New Zealand, the industry organisation for restaurants, cafes and other members of the hospitality sector announced that it is stepping away ... More >>
Restaurant Association Announces NZ Culinary Fare Winners
Friday, 22 August 2014, 10:05 am | Restaurant Association of NZ
Auckland, 22 August 2014 – Six hundred competitors in 60 classes gave their all in three days of competition at the 22nd annual New Zealand Culinary Fare, concluding this week in Auckland. More >>
Hall of Fame Inductee and 2014 Good Neighbour Award Winner
Tuesday, 19 August 2014, 11:28 am | Restaurant Association of NZ
2014 Hall of Fame Inductee and Good Neighbour Award Recipient Honoured by the Restaurant Association More >>
Café and Restaurant Takings Surge
Thursday, 19 June 2014, 1:50 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
New Zealand's hospitality sector experienced encouraging growth as rebounding consumer and business confidence played a major part in the (almost) tripling of the sector's annual growth rate1. More >>
Show some love and support your local café
Monday, 2 September 2013, 4:10 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
Show some love and support your local café Forget local body elections; for food fans the big call this year is on which is New Zealand's best café. But with voting now underway in the 2013 NZ Café of the Year, café lovers need to ensure their ... More >>
Hellebrekers Enters Restaurant Association Hall of Fame
Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 10:57 am | Restaurant Association of NZ
Auckland, 21 August 2103 – The Restaurant Association of New Zealand this evening announced John Hellebrekers as the 2013 inductee into the Association's Hall of Fame, an accolade reserved for those who have made an extensive and on-going commitment ... More >>
Outlook for Hospitality Industry Improves
Tuesday, 2 July 2013, 9:47 am | Restaurant Association of NZ
As New Zealand's economy continues to strengthen, so too does the hospitality industry. The third annual Hospitality Report, the definitive guide to the performance of New Zealand's hospitality industry was released today. Jointly researched by the Restaurant ... More >>
The Surcharging Debate
Tuesday, 5 February 2013, 10:58 am | Restaurant Association of NZ
Auckland, 5 February 2013 - This week restaurant and café operators up and down the country will face a choice as they do on every statutory holiday. Should I open? For many it's not an easy decision, says Restaurant Association of New Zealand ... More >>
Café lovers – have your say
Monday, 3 September 2012, 3:13 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
Public voting has opened in the inaugural New Zealand Caf é of the Year competition to determine which deserves the title of the country's best. More >>
Are You the Next Jamie, Gordon or Heston?
Wednesday, 13 June 2012, 2:47 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
Restaurant Association Launches New Nationwide Search for Hospitality's Rising Stars $20k prize package for winner, including mentoring from industry leader Steve Logan The hunt is on to find the country's newest hospitality stars, and the Restaurant ... More >>
NZ Culinary Fare Gets Extreme Makeover to Celebrate 20 Years
Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 12:41 pm | Restaurant Association of NZ
Over three days in August the hospitality sector's best and brightest will battle it out in the heat and steam of kitchens at the 20th annual New Zealand Culinary Fare. More >>
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RNZ News
28-07-2025
- RNZ News
Ban on card payment surcharges: Cafe owner says they'll have to pass on cost
The government plans to ban surcharges on card payments for in-person payments. Photo: 123rf Prices may need to rise at restaurants and cafes due to a ban on credit card surcharges, the sector is warning. The government plans to ban surcharges on card payments for in-person payments. Legislation is expected to be introduced to Parliament by the end of the year, with the ban to kick into effect no later than May 2026. Richard Corney, founder of Flight Coffee and The Hangar cafe, said he would have to pass the cost on to consumers somehow. "Our cafe, The Hangar, paid $17,000 in merchant fees in 2023 for the privilege of using PayWave and other associated services," Corney said. "Yes, it speeds up service and there's value using it, but the solution isn't banning vendors from on charging this expense. What next? They ban cafes from charging a surcharge for opening on a public holiday? Better yet, and while they're putting restrictions on the banks, why not ban the banks from charging for this service outright and save small businesses real money by not having to fund this expense." He said cafes would operate on profit to revenue ratios of less than five percent. "Banks do not - and they're also institutionally paramount functions of our society," Corney said. He said $17,000 was a significant portion of after-tax profit "I absolutely have to on-charge any associated expense with regard to this." The policy seemed out of touch, he said. Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois agreed it would be tough on hospitality businesses operating on tight margins. "These surcharges are genuine costs that businesses must pay. Without surcharges, businesses will need to absorb these fees, further impacting already small margins." She said the announcement had come as a surprise. "We've actively engaged with the Government to outline the financial pressures faced by hospitality businesses due to bank-imposed fees," Bidois said. "While we welcome consumer-focused changes, we are concerned about the lack of consultation on this particular announcement." She said businesses would probably need to adjust their pries. "Removing the ability to surcharge could mean businesses factoring these costs into their overall pricing, potentially leading to increased costs for diners." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
24-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
What are people in hospo being paid?
By Susan Edmunds of RNZ People working in hospitality have been getting paid a rate that is closer and closer to the minimum wage over the years. The Restaurant Association has produced its latest remuneration report, which shows what people are being paid on average around the country. But economists say it also highlights how little many hospitality jobs are paying. A bar manager is now being paid an average $32.20 an hour, a barista $26.91, a breakfast chef $29.23. Café managers are earning an average $29.86, chef de partie $29.63, and duty managers $29.16. General managers are earning $44.85, head chefs $36.81 and kitchen hands $25.03. Sommeliers are getting $30.30 on average and wait staff $25.52. The minimum wage is $23.50. "Our latest remuneration survey reflects a sector that is steadily moving forward," said Marisa Bidois, chief executive of the Restaurant Association. "Despite continued cost pressures and tight operating margins, hospitality businesses are prioritising wage growth and creating structured pathways for career progression." The average hourly wage across the industry was $27.84, she said, up 2.54 percent from the previous year. Salaried roles edged up to an average of $83,415. She said the report showed clear wage progression in both kitchen and front-of-house roles. Entry-level positions started close to the minimum wage, but moved up. Head chefs were earning up to $46.62 an hour and general managers averaging $133,208 annually. Front-of-house roles follow a similar path, with senior management roles reaching $45 an hour or more, she said. Caterers and bar operators were earning some of the highest hourly rates, at $32.95 and $30.90 respectively "Whether you're starting out or already in leadership, there are opportunities to grow and earn more," Bidois said. 'Everyone has concerns about whether they will have a job' But Craig Renney, policy director and economist at the Council of Trade Unions said the average rate of wage growth cited in the report was less than the rate of inflation. "At best most workers are standing still." He said the sector had been hurt badly and had not fully recovered since Covid. "We don't have the same number of tourists and people are keeping their hands in their pockets. Everyone has concerns about whether they will have a job." He said it was concerning that people with skills, such as pastry chefs and sommeliers, were still earning only about $30 an hour. "That suggests there is very little return to education or training." People such as bar managers had legal obligations to consider, too, but were not getting much more than the living wage, he said. But he said there were not many restaurants in New Zealand that were sufficiently expensive to pay higher wages. Bidois said, for the first time, operators had reported that wage costs had reached an average 40 percent of outgoings. Renney said there had been little growth in the number of filled jobs in the sector. Since 2019, the number had only increased 4.3 percent. That was about half the rate of all sectors. Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster at Infometrics, said accommodation and food services wages had not kept pace with an economy-wide increase in wages since the 1970s. "The exception was the very tight labour market during Covid-19, when hospitality wages rose faster - you can even see a little bit of this before the pandemic in 2018 and 2019. Essentially, prior to this point in time, employers in the industry didn't need to pay much because there was a relatively good supply of people to do the work." He said, apart from a rally between 2020 and 2022 due to those issues, average hospitality wages had been generally getting close to the minimum wage over time. "Hospitality pay rates, in relative terms, have actually improved between 2017 and 2022, but this lift is likely to have been driven by the very tight labour market more than anything else, and wage growth has slipped back over the last two or three years as the economy and spending growth have weakened and the unemployment rate has risen. "Putting current cyclical conditions aside, demographic projections suggest that the labour market will remain relatively tight over the medium-term as the population ages, which could create conditions for better wage growth in hospitality than prevailed between the 1980s and mid-2000s. "If the labour supply remains tight across the whole economy over the medium-term, then all industries will need to compete harder for labour, but the squeeze could be tightest in lower-paid industries such as retail and hospitality unless their pay rates lift significantly. "The alternative to paying a lot more for workers is to invest in labour-saving capital instead - we've seen this occurring in retail and hospitality over the last couple of decades already, and there was additional pressure during the pandemic, where QR codes for ordering etc reduced the need for wait staff, for example - so increasing wages is not the only part of the puzzle."
NZ Herald
24-07-2025
- NZ Herald
On The Up: Wild Game from Camberley in Hastings claims best ham award again at NZ pork industry's big night out
But it wasn't the first acclaim for Wild Game, which won both awards two years ago. 'This means so much to small businesses like mine,' Hamilton told the organisers. 'I've been lucky enough to win this before, so to take it out again must show it's a quality product. I'm incredibly proud – it's hard to put into words how much this means.' Wild Game's Old School Pressed Ham, which sells for $30 a kilogram, won the national Supreme Ham Award for a second time. Wild Game also received gold medal recognition for two products in the streaky bacon category, for its Bushman's Streaky Bacon and Old School Streaky Bacon. The judging process spanned three days and brought together a panel of experienced butchers and culinary experts, who evaluated entries from across the country, all crafted using 100% New Zealand-born and raised pork. Products were judged across eight bacon and three ham categories, with gold, silver, and bronze medals awarded, and each category's top-scoring product earning the title of Category Champion. The category champions were then in the running for the Supreme Bacon and Supreme Ham titles. Culinary judge Ginny Grant said the standard was exceptionally high this year, making for a very close competition. 'From an aesthetic point of view, the ham really had that 'wow' factor when it was presented to the judges,' she said, with particular acclaim for the Hawke's Bay product. 'A pressed ham is more of a traditional style, and not only did it look amazing, but it was also incredibly moreish, with great depth of flavour and impressive balance. You could tell it had been made with a lot of care.' Technical judge Brian Everton, of Cabernet Foods, highlighted the innovation and skill behind both winning products. 'What really made both supreme winners stand out this year was just how innovative they were. Both the ham and bacon were quite different, and you could tell a lot of thought had gone into making them unique. 'That creativity really helped elevate them. From a technical point of view, they're not easy products to make either, so it's clear the producers put a lot of care and attention into getting them just right, and it's paid off.' The public cast 5400 votes for the People's Choice Award, which went to Christchurch firm Peter Timbs Meats. Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke's Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke's Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.
