Catering profit — but no rental

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33779, 27 February 1975, Page 1

Catering profit — but no rental

Catering at the Town Hall has shown a gross profit in the three months since it was taken over by the Town Hall board of management, according to figures presented at the monthly meeting of the board yesterday.

But the accounts were tagged with a note that some items, including rental, had not been charged. The board assumed responsibility for catering at the Town Hall after it had put the original caterers, Town Hall Enterprises, in receiver-

ship at the end of October last year. Since November ,11, the restaurant and other catering have been managed for the board as a subaccount in the board’s finances. When Town Hall Enterprises was put into receivership, the company’s principal, Mr F. J. H. Visser, blamed high rentals being charged by the board for a large part of the company’s financial problems. Rentals had been responsible for an earlier rift between Mr Visser and the board and had been lowered in May last year. The figures presented to the board yesterday showed that between November IL

and the end of last month catering turnover was $94,682, giving a gross profit of $13,140.

Expenditure

Expenditure during that time included $37,644 on stock, $33,103 on wages, $6540 on repairs and replacements of glassware, crockery, and cutlery, $3954 on power, publicity, and printing and stationery, and $3OO on written-off stock. But the board’s treasurer (Mr L. A. G. Rich) said that the accounts did not include rental, a 1 per cent payment due to the catering manager,

depreciation on equipment, or an allowance for bad debts outstanding to the catering service. There was $12,632 owed in bad debts at the end of January,

he said. Depreciation was difficult to show because, although about $40,000 had been spent on new equipment since November 11, a lot of it was glassware and crockery and some of this had already been replaced and charged in the list of expenditure. When the board cancelled the concession to Town Hall Enterprises, rental for the year to March 31, 1975, was set at $26,400, and for the three months since the board

took control would have amounted to $6600. The board was also told that refrigerated space at the restaurant was inadequate, and an addition would cost

more than $3500. In the meantime, a refrig-j erated truck, on loan from a! major food supplier, is J parked permanently outside the kitchen door to provide additional freezer space. Asked how the former caterer had coped with just the two refrigerated rooms in the Town Hall, the catering manager (Mr R. J. ■Collingwood) said he understood that Mr Visser had had i additional freezers on \ another site.