Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Iris Capital Chief Operating Officer Craig Jarvis says Qantas flight cuts into Alice are a kick in the guts and he’s calling for more to be done to increase competition

Transcript

Iris Capital Chief Operating Officer Craig Jarvis says Qantas flight cuts into Alice are a kick in the guts and he’s calling for more to be done to increase competition · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that atg down Under, a coach tour
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: operator in Alice Springs has notified stakeholders have plans to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: wind down operations in town with massive flow on effects
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: for the community. Now we've reached out and invited them
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: on the show, but they were not in a position
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to talk about about the situation further on the show.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: It is my understanding that they did speak to ABC
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in Alice Springs and have said or they certainly gave
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a statement I should say to ABC and Alice Springs
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: this morning and they did well. They did link that
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: decision to the Quantus decision and also said that you
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: know that the situation with crime has been another contributing factor.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: It is another blow for the crime stricken town after
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  Speaker 1: Tourism Central Australia CEO Daniel Rochford had revealed on the
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  Speaker 1: show earlier this week that Quantus plans to cut thirty
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: thousand seats from the region. Now, one major player in
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs who is concerned about the lack of competition
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: in the town and what it meant needs for the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: future of tourism, particularly when it comes to conferences, meetings
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and events, is Iris Capital and joining me on the
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  Speaker 1: line right now is their chief operating officer, Craig Jarvis.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Craig, Morning Canty. How are you?
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really good. Thank you so much for taking the
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  Speaker 1: time to have a chat with us this morning. Craig,
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  Speaker 1: what impact firstly, will the loss of flights to Alice
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Springs have when it comes to your operations?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Well, certainly kicking the guards from a tourism perpectively across
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  Speaker 2: across the board, you know, just having less available flights
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: coming in and being charged at a premium certainly, you know,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: takes us off the They must do lists for a
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: lot of people from a you know, just a general
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: traveling tourist, not to mention the biggest things like the
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: conference and you you alluded to there. Not being having
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: available flights and being competitive certainly takes you off the mark.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: When you're dealing with people at the professional comp and organizers,
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  Speaker 2: they won't even put us on a list to start
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: to look if getting their access is too challenging.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So realistically, if it's if it's difficult to
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: get there in terms of not being able to access flights,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: but then I'm assuming as well, Craig, if those flights
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: are really expensive that that would have a huge impact
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: when you're trying to lure hundreds of people for a conference.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, and that becomes a bit of a no no.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: And then there's a lot of other competition in that
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  Speaker 2: space throughout Australia and certainly it impacts you know us
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: from the get go from a bidding perspective, we're not
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: even able to show you know, what was not as
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: an offering or a product. We don't get that down
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  Speaker 2: the list. So disappointing, I suppose from a quantitus perspective,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: it's a business decision. I think from my perspective, it
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: certainly highlights the need for you know, competitors in that
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  Speaker 2: space to bring down flights, not being held held to
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: a hostage by by one carrier. Yeah.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Well, we've spoken so the Tourism Minister earlier this morning
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Nicole Madison, and did put to her, you know, whether
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: she had had those face to face meetings with the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: likes of Bonza or even Rex. At this point she
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: said that the bureaucrats within the department have met with them.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But do you think that that's enough, I mean, do
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: you think that the minister needs to sit down face
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to face with them and sort of try to get
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: some more operators into the territory, specifically Central Australia.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I think certainly this at this point, now we're at Wedby,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: we're looking at meeting with the minister, we're ranging a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: time at the moment to certainly say I think she
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: does need to take a lead in this now this
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  Speaker 2: conversation and make sure that we do get some competitors
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: in this space. You mentioned earlier to be some challenges
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: and Alice, we're ready to move on and move away
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: from from those. I think some of those are being
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: put behind us, you know, but things like this certainly
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: don't help the future. Being able to attract and retain
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: staff is important in Alice. You know, it's always challenge.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: You know, you need to be able to have people
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: to be able to come and go, you know, from
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: a remote town and it helps people, you know, the
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: longevity of people when they hear if they can zip
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: off to the big city to do their shopping and
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: do a bit of go to the football games and
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: the concerts and things. So liveability is certainly something here
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: that it's really key.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Craig Will, how will iris capital be impacted in
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: any way as well buy that news that atg down
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Under have decided to wind down in Alice Springs.
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  Speaker 2: Well, look again, it's when we're talking about competitors unfortunate.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: It's another you know, it's the competitor gone in that
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  Speaker 2: the bus space, so certainly disappointing. I'm not aware of
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  Speaker 2: the full details of their winding up. I've only heard
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  Speaker 2: what you know, I've heard on the radio and what
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: you've said there before. I haven't had any other information.
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  Speaker 2: But it's certainly around investor confidence. There's a lot of
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: big investors, you know, discoveries as IRIS capital planning on
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: doing a lot of work and having done a lot
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: of works, it's certainly disheartening when you are looking in
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: return on investment from your investment, when you're going downhill.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we're trying to aim up and a very
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: positive about the National Aboriginal Art Gallery here, which was
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: planning to bring fifty six hours and extra visitors a
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: year through to the center. That was part of our
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: you know, gearing up. Our investment from IRIS is really
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: capitalizing there. But we're going backwards in capacity and those
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: sort of numbers are running it odds within each.
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  Speaker 1: Other Craig, just talk me through that. You know, when
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  Speaker 1: you are looking at at the capacity changing in terms
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: of the flights and quantas winding back, but also with
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: things like the art gallery, does that I mean what
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  Speaker 1: does that do for IRIS capital in terms of that
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  Speaker 1: confidence with what is going on in Central Australia and
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: you know, the way in which the governments sort of
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: delivering on what they have promised, well we.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Could certainly you know, brings you back to the board
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  Speaker 2: table and to it and you know it's looking at
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  Speaker 2: your numbers. You know, a lot of what we're doing
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: here will be funded. So obviously there's investors that need
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: to be you know, primarily banks that need to be
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: comfortable with those decisions as well. So it's not just
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: keeping you know, the investors themselves, but also their stakeholders
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: and partners, you know, being the banks, they need to
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: be comfortable with what's happening as well. But if they're
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: seeing one you know, I think going backwards, it's not
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: necessarily a positive sign that they want to see. So
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: you know, certainly from our perspective, looking at numbers and
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: you know, what are we going to get if we're
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: going to build an extra four hundred hotel rooms. Is
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: they're going to be in a capacity to fill those
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: and they're the sorts of discussions we need to have
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: and you know, not just a light into the center.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: You know, we need to have some some redundancy there.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, this is the thing there's got to be
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: returned for your investment. Craig is IRA's capital reconsidering some
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: of the company's investments at this point or where are
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: you asked?
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  Speaker 2: We're still working through the process on all of the investments,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: all the properties we've got. We've got improvement plans in place.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: You know, none of those have got firm deadlines on
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: them at this stage, so we're still working through those four.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: But you know, this sort of thing brings you know,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: you know, other elements to the table when you're when
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: you're considering these you know, are we going to do
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: the you know, the high end of the development or
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: is it going to be something a bit more migrat
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: If I don't I don't know, I can't make that comment,
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  Speaker 2: but it is certainly something that you know, it's been
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: croning to mixed an amount of surprise this week. As
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: I said, we've sort of felt the forward bookings and
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: things were very strong and heading into a good tourist season.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Do you still feel that way? I mean, do you
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: still feel as those things are looking strong as you're
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: heading to the tourist season. How are you eyes feeling
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: at this point?
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  Speaker 2: I think our venues specifically are probably looking pretty reasonable.
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  Speaker 2: Alice always sold around our key events like our you
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: know Patmers and Reds and Nuts and think cap Carnival.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: All of those book bookings are strong, but you know,
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: we're just hoping that those flights and we still line
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: up for everyone that they can actually get get here
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: as well. So a lot of them were book accommodation
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: but might not have booked flights at this point. So yeah,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: we'll we'll wait and see the impact of the business
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: in the future here.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Craig, before I let you go, I know that
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: you said that that you know, the town is certainly
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: trying to push forward after what has been a pretty
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: tough time around that crime crisis. From your perspective of
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: things calm down a little bit.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I believe they hadn't yet. I think there's been a
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: lot of attention obviously, you know, at the national level
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: and all levels of government and I think you know,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: with spotlights on it comes from a lot of agencies
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: seem to be doing and you know, all the things
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: they're funder tude to the their ability. And I certainly
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: have our venues to speak for everyone, but turning in
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: our venues tent and truths.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Well, Craig Jarvis, we really appreciate you having a chat
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  Speaker 1: with us this morning. The chief operating officer with IRIS Capital,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Dowie, thanks so much.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you