Latest / Kvetch & Release / If LCBO strikes what happens to restaurants, hotels, & motels that serve liquor?

Transcript

If LCBO strikes what happens to restaurants, hotels, & motels that serve liquor? · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  A lot of eyes in the province are looking forward to a potential strike of
• 0:04
  LCBO unionized workers on July the fifth, and what that will mean for the
• 0:09
  hospitality industry. I'm thinking right now, restaurants, bars, hotels, motels,
• 0:16
  everyone in between. How is that going to work? What is the
• 0:19
  impact going to be? Joining me to break this down and discuss as the
• 0:24
  President and CEO of the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association, Tony elenis
• 0:30
  how you doing, Tony, Good evening, doing well, very well,
• 0:35
  Thank you, thanks for joining me here. So I imagine as just as
• 0:39
  consumers are looking towards that potential July fifth date after Canada Day weekend, what
• 0:46
  does it mean for restaurants, hotels and motels that serve liquor? How are
• 0:53
  they going to be able to get liquor? Will they be able to get
• 0:56
  liquor? What's the source for them to be able to get liquor? Chocohol
• 1:00
  is critical to a restaurant's success. It brings customers in and customers are given
• 1:07
  on experience, an experience that it's fun and they enjoying a food very Joco
• 1:11
  and food have been traditionally the best partners are out now. For the listeners,
• 1:19
  it's important to know that the restaurants can purchase their wine from the many
• 1:23
  Ontario wineries, and we've got some great wineries there around the windsor with Nikia
• 1:30
  Wines. These are developed directly from the wineries, and beer is purchased from
• 1:37
  the beer store or direct from the many independent breweries out there. But the
• 1:42
  issue is with the spirit categories such as vodka, tequila, and whiskey,
• 1:49
  and those are items that are part of them mixing frend cocktail pastes and we'll
• 1:55
  miss them if this goes through. This strike comes through it, so I
• 1:59
  hope that it doesn't. And so the LCBO is the only place that they're
• 2:04
  able to go purchase that those liquors that we're discussing. Correct, Well,
• 2:08
  that would cause a serious wrench to be thrown into things. But as you
• 2:14
  said, they'd still be able to purchase wine from wineries or craft beer from
• 2:20
  craft breers I imagine, correct, correct, and those channels, many of
• 2:24
  them are doing it now. The beer still is still the core distributor for
• 2:30
  beer, so that does not change. Okay, So let's say you know,
• 2:34
  we all no one wants to see the strike happen. We hear that
• 2:36
  from both sides, of course. But let's say that we do get to
• 2:39
  a situation where that does occur, and I go to a restaurant and I
• 2:45
  sit down and I say that I want to get a glass of a gin
• 2:47
  and tonic. Are they still able to sell the gin that they have on
• 2:52
  site until they run out? Absolutely, until they declute all the products.
• 2:57
  Now, most restaurants normally purchase alcohol product based on projected event. They don't
• 3:04
  stock up for long term durations. These a cash flow industry in many cases,
• 3:09
  exceptions could be some unique vintage, imported type of whites or consignment type
• 3:15
  specific to a restaurant, the industry being in a cash flow issue most of
• 3:22
  the time. And they also don't have any storage limitations, so there's not
• 3:27
  a lot of product in a facility. If to strike last a long time,
• 3:34
  oh well, that becomes then a serious problem. So it doesn't mean
• 3:38
  that the entire alcohol industry is going to grind to a halt, of course,
• 3:40
  as we're saying here, just that the spirit side of thing will be
• 3:44
  slowing down. What's the real impact, though, What does that mean for
• 3:47
  your restaurants, hotels, and motels to not be able to have access to
• 3:52
  something that I imagine is, you know, a very important part of their
• 3:54
  revenue streams. Well. I think also to underline is that the LCIBO is
• 4:00
  developing a contingency plant and they're letting us know at this point that there will
• 4:05
  be a plan to service our restaurants. We don't know how the plan will
• 4:10
  look like or the approach. It hasn't been disclosed yet, but there is
• 4:14
  some room to move there as well. Now the restaurants continue to recover it
• 4:18
  came out of the pandemic, they are facing the impact of inflicure to many
• 4:25
  that seems to be a greater barrier that have put prices up and we've all
• 4:30
  notice them as consumers, but not enough to mitigate the expenses and bring profit
• 4:36
  to the bottom line. So many of them are paying loans, some of
• 4:42
  them personal, some of them went the bank, and it's still a bit
• 4:47
  time to throw another challenge of them. It's been a challenge after challenge after
• 4:55
  challenge, undoubtedly since everything really went up in the air back into and twenty
• 5:00
  four years ago. So hey, for the sake of all of your members,
• 5:03
  I hope that everything goes as well as possible, especially for the unionized
• 5:08
  employees at the LCBO as well. But Tony, I want to thank you
• 5:11
  so much for joining me breaking this down what it means for restaurant, hotel
• 5:15
  and motel owners and operators in the province. Thanks you, and a pleasure
• 5:19
  to be on your show. Thank you very much. Tony Elenis is the
• 5:24
  president and CEO of the Ontario Restaurant, Hotel and Motel Association talking there,
• 5:28
  but what happens if the LCBO strikes for his membership, Well, we're hearing
• 5:31
  that the LCBO as contingency plans. We don't know what that looks like.
• 5:34
  He doesn't know what that looks like. But as it stands right now,
• 5:38
  the LCBO is the only liquor source for restaurants, hotels and motels. Beer
• 5:44
  still available. They can still go to the beer store and buy They can
• 5:46
  still buy directly from breweries. Same with wine, but it's that spirits that's
• 5:50
  a bit different. So we will keep our eye on that. I can
• 5:55
  say right now though, in regards to the LCBO, that we don't have
• 6:00
  a update specifically as to where things stand, other than earlier today we've got
• 6:04
  a statement from them that said in the event of a strike, we are
• 6:08
  putting measures in place to ensure continued customer service. They then direct you to
• 6:14
  full comments on collective bargaining as a whole at their website. You can check
• 6:17
  that out at LCBO Negotiations. But again, that really does just get into
• 6:23
  how they operate under these circumstances. The most recent information from the LCBO in
• 6:27
  the event of a strike, we are putting measures in place to ensure continued
• 6:30
  customer service.