Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Porkin’ Co-owner Manfred Mletsin believes the NT Government’s liquor licence buy-back scheme won’t reduce access to grog saying it will only force people to go to major retailers

Transcript

Porkin’ Co-owner Manfred Mletsin believes the NT Government’s liquor licence buy-back scheme won’t reduce access to grog saying it will only force people to go to major retailers · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we did just hear from Shelley.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah at Zicola, I g I and another local business
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: owner joins me on the line now to give me
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: their take on the buyback. It is Pork and co
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: owner Manfred lets them. Good morning to your Manfred.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Great to have you on the show.
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  Speaker 2: Manfred, tell us, what are your thoughts on this buyback situation.
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  Speaker 3: I think I'm going to be in the same boat
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  Speaker 3: as Shelley said. It came out of nowhere, and it's
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  Speaker 3: just kind of something unexpected, you know. And it's like
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  Speaker 3: with these like it's not the main part of our business,
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  Speaker 3: you know, obviously, because we do the food and the
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  Speaker 3: coffee and everything else, but it just supplements what we do,
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: you know. And like as you mentioned earlier, we are
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: kind of aiming towards those more boutique wines and craft beers,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and it's we're not your regular bws or
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  Speaker 3: any other bottle shop.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And so is it something that you guys would
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  Speaker 2: ever consider, because it does seem like, you know, while
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: it isn't and it's ancillary, it is still an add
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: on that I'm assuming your customers really like.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and exactly, and we've heard a lot back from
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  Speaker 3: the community ever since we took over the shop in
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  Speaker 3: July last year that what we've done and change is
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  Speaker 3: that people are very happy, you know, they have an
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  Speaker 3: option of her coming to the shop and get these
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  Speaker 3: wines that they can't get anywhere else. And it's again,
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  Speaker 3: it's a supplement for the business, but it's not the
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  Speaker 3: main goal of the business.
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  Speaker 2: And so do you think that the move will make
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  Speaker 2: any difference in reducing the supply of alcohol and alcohol
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  Speaker 2: related harm?
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  Speaker 3: Personally? I don't think that because, like Shelley said, it's
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  Speaker 3: just going to shifted to another place. People are still
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  Speaker 3: going to get the alcohol. You know, it's just going
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  Speaker 3: to great a monopoly for the bigger boys, or it's
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  Speaker 3: just it's just shifting problem from one spot to the other.
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  Speaker 2: Manford, how has it been for you guys since you've
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  Speaker 2: taken over the shop. Have you had to deal with
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  Speaker 2: much in the way of anti social behavior or break
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  Speaker 2: ins or anything like that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think last time we talked actually was about
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  Speaker 3: the antisocial behavior around the shop, but we've taken steps
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  Speaker 3: where we've reduced that and honestly touched food. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we've had less issues ever since we changed our kind
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  Speaker 3: of the module, like selling those different kinds of products here,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and we've seen less and less issues. And
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  Speaker 3: obviously the area has become more lively, and obviously the
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  Speaker 3: best best option to tackle antisocial behavior is having more
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  Speaker 3: people around the shop, you know, and customers coming in
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  Speaker 3: getting what they want, you know, And we're trying to
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  Speaker 3: make it more lively as well, like on Fridays, for example,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: we do Bila Nights and it brings more people in
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  Speaker 3: and it pushes the antisocial behavior away. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, and look it sounds as though it's also you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's sort of activating that area in a different way.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, And that's what we've been trying to do.
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  Speaker 3: And we're the community people is we're obviously surrounded by
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  Speaker 3: these apartment buildings and everything, and people are saying this
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  Speaker 3: is good and it's great to see that the area
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  Speaker 3: is getting more lightly, it's getting more it's getting activated. Here.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me, what do you think about the governments? You know,
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  Speaker 2: with this buyback, they've sort of stated that all the
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  Speaker 2: deals are going to be commercial and confidence, so nobody's
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  Speaker 2: ever going to know, you know, how much the buyback
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: is worth.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think of that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting, but I understand it's part of the business,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and depends on an offer that's made between
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  Speaker 3: different shops. And obviously I can't remember who mentioned earlier
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  Speaker 3: about the different modules how this is going to be
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  Speaker 3: calculated out, you know, like even for us as well,
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  Speaker 3: Like I'm not looking at about six or four months terms.
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  Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm looking in ten years time, like I
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  Speaker 3: want to have this shop for longer period than one
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  Speaker 3: or two years, you know, and if it's going to
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  Speaker 3: be viable for me to sell it or not, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Which I think is a fair enough decision to make.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if you're planning on having a long term business,
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  Speaker 2: it's got to you've got to make sure that it's viable.
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  Speaker 1: What's it been like for you as well?
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  Speaker 2: Man, For you know that twenty five percent interview sales
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  Speaker 2: being you know, only twenty five percent being able to
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  Speaker 2: be alcohol By the sounds of things, your business is
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  Speaker 2: really quite a different one anyway, and the alcohol is
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  Speaker 2: quite ancillary.
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  Speaker 3: So it's stilled. Were monitored heavily and obviously we talk
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  Speaker 3: with licensing and make sure that we're complying with everything,
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  Speaker 3: it's a tough one, especially sharely mentioned with some of
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  Speaker 3: the shops being closed last week following the tragedy, we
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  Speaker 3: saw a bit of a search of alcohol sales for
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  Speaker 3: after the all, and especially with some of the shops
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  Speaker 3: closing at six pm whereas we close at eight pm,
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  Speaker 3: you can seem that those two hours there's a bit
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  Speaker 3: more alcohol sales, but we heavily monitor and make sure
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  Speaker 3: that we're not going to up break any rules.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Manfred, it's really good to speak to you.
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  Speaker 2: It's a really interesting discussion, I think, and I've no
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  Speaker 2: doubt that plenty of listeners are going to have their
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  Speaker 2: own opinions on this. Thank you so very much for
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: taking the time to have a chat with us today.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you Katie, every want you two make.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you