A popular Queenstown food retailer’s been forced to buy staff digs to keep its store fully functioning.
Cookie Time, which operates Cookie Bar in Camp Street and also has a marketing office in town, recently bought a six-bedroom property in Frankton Road — comprising two three-bed room apartments — to house staff.
Managing director Guy Pope-Mayell says they had people lining up to work but with nowhere to stay due to the resort’s acute shortage of
rental accommodation.
Buying staff housing was ‘‘the only solution we could actually think of that made any sense in solving the problem in the short term’’.
‘‘It’s an extreme measure for, I think, extreme circumstances.
‘‘What we weren’t prepared to do was have the Cookie Bar limping along, not open seven days and not being open for the full hours.
‘‘We just didn’t see that as being an option for the Cookie Bar, for our customers and for the brand.’’
Having the staff house has been ‘‘absolutely mission-critical in order to have a team that are ready to deliver great service’’.
Pope-Mayell believes his company’s in ‘‘a very privileged position’’ to be able to afford to adopt this solution — ‘‘most businesses in Queenstown wouldn’t be able to make this decision’’.
He adds they’re charging staff rent ‘‘because they have to pay somewhere anyway, so you can get almost to square one if you manage it
this way’’.
However, there’s ‘‘clearly a very friendly arrangement designed to build the right culture and connection with the team’’.
