Mal's Pizza Bite forced to shut after being hit with pandemic staff, stock shortages

Mal's Pizza Bite was among those hit with the reality of this stage of the pandemic, with staff shortages resulting from a few positive cases among staff members and the need for close-contact isolation of others.

On Thursday January 6, owner Mal Barnes made the decision to close the shop until Monday, however by Sunday it was decided that the shop would need to remain closed for the rest of this week.

"We thought that we'd better just check everyone that's been in contact with any of those people [the positive cases among staff] to see if they're clear or not because otherwise we were not going to have enough staff," Mr Barnes said.

"What's been happening is that when everyone's been getting tested it's taken so long to get their results, we've had to just stay closed.

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"Because we've been waiting on results we're actually not going to open until Friday so it's really a full week of sales we've lost because of the amount of time to get results and the amount of staff that have been in close contact with people that got it," he said.

"It's pay week next week, but there's no sales going in so there's no money for pay.

"We've got 25 staff but only six of them are permanent, so it's unfortunate for the casuals because they just haven't been earning anything and then we've got to pay the other staff."

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Another factor affecting hospitality businesses has been widespread shortages on food due to issues with packing, trucking and logistic companies.

Mr Barnes said the suppliers have been a bit hit and miss, but he was confident that upon opening on Friday, January 14, Mal's Pizza Bite would have what it needed for service.

"It was just initially as everything sort of happened at once so I thought we might as well close the doors and try and get everyone healthy before we reopen and everything's back on track.

"Because we've been closed it hasn't been that bad for us, but now we're ready to open and we've got plenty of stock now so we should be ready to go on Friday."

A big change Mr Barnes said he had noticed in the last three weeks had been the uptake in online orders and home delivery. They have also been offering contactless delivery for those who have tested positive or are isolating.

"Our online ordering has increased by about 120 per cent so people are not coming into the shop as much, and then when they do, it's usually just handing over the pizza. Most of them are paying over eftpos so there's little cash handling."

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In the past few weeks the business has had to start using a third vehicle just to keep up with delivery demand. Mr Barnes said they had been using it almost every night before the closure.

Mr Barnes said the business also, "broke all records" with an increase of more than 20 per cent in sales between the Christmas and New Year period, something he said usually occurs for businesses on the coast, but less so for Bega township businesses.

"I just think there's so many more tourists and people travelling around now trying to help the regional areas, but there's certainly a lot of locals in there too that maybe haven't gone away, there's definitely more people around," he said.

"The community has supported us 100 per cent and I couldn't be happier with the way that the community has supported us and likewise with us, we try and do it for them too.

"I couldn't fault the community at all," he said.