South Australia’s Riverland region has tourism and hospitality opportunities but most businesses in the area are weighed down by increasing costs of doing business and a lack of skilled workers.
Preliminary results of the South Australian Business Chamber Regional Voice Survey show 50% of businesses find wage increases to be a significant challenge.
14% are concerned about energy prices while another 14% have been impacted by the rise in fuel prices.
Company tax rates and payroll tax are major levies considered to be restricting growth, with some saying that multiple levies for a single industry are a burden.
Many businesses are also reporting that payroll tax puts them in an unfair position because some of their local and interstate competitors do not pay it.
Despite these challenges, one business in Loxton has fixed its eyes on the silver lining.
Tim Vivian, Director of The Country Bakehouse since 2005, a restaurant and bakery serving the community since 1986, attests to the opportunities for the hospitality industry.
“We lack stand-alone boutique restaurants and have limited choices.
“I love going to Adelaide and being spoilt for choice with an army of different cuisines and restaurants to choose from,” he said.
Tim says the region’s hospitality industry is limited to pubs and clubs and countable stand-alone restaurants.
Like most businesses, the bakery has seen firsthand the effects of labour competition and wage growth.
Tim recounts an experience during the fruit fly outbreak when young locals were being paid up to $45 per hour to set and check fruit fly traps. He says the pay was exorbitant and amusingly considered closing the business and joining them.
The restaurant pays award wages; however, they are aware of the impulse to offer high wages to attract workers during labour shortages.
An increase in wages has led to reduced profitability and the ability to offer attractive rates to prospective employees.
While 64% of local businesses report they are not experiencing labour shortages, they say finding workers is a challenge, because of a lack of housing and incentives for young people to pursue careers in trades.
The silver lining is the tourism opportunities in Riverland.
Tim, the bakery owner, reminisces about the increase in tourism activities during the COVID-19 period.
“People were coming into our bakery regularly. Some were saying they had not been here in the last 20 years.
“There has been a slump during the post-COVID-19 period.
“The sad thing is we won’t see these people for another 20 years,” he added.
The Loxton businessman proposes promotional activities in neighbouring regions and interstate.
Like other businesses, he is looking past the clouds.
The South Australian Business Chamber Regional Voice Survey is an opportunity for regional businesses to submit issues that affect them. The South Australian Business Chamber uses those responses to champion for better policies and conditions.
