3 minute read
From the General Manager
from Hotel SA May 2021
by Boylen
COVID-19 Relief Welcome
IAN HORNE – AHA|SA GENERAL MANAGER
South Australia enjoys the most ‘relaxed’ COVID-19 trading conditions of any Australian jurisdiction.
The 75% or 3 in 4 square metres introduced before Easter has been for many venues, a ‘game changer’ and the industry is grateful for the improved trading conditions.
We welcome the transition committees continued consideration of the industry needs and their on-going consideration of the need to further remove restrictions and limitations.
Those obviously include a return to 100% capacity, particularly as we approach winter, and the lifting of remaining restrictions on buffets and smorgasbords, as well as the remaining capacity limits for nightclubs and live music venues.
We will continue to work with SAPOL and the transition committee, and naturally will continue to advocate on members behalf.
LIFE MEMBERSHIP AWARDED AT AHA|SA AGM LUNCHEON
Guy Matthews has been awarded honorary Life Membership of the Australian Hotels Association SA Branch after recommendation and consideration of the AHA|SA Council.
Guy Matthews’ contribution to the Industry and the AHA|SA is reflected in his service to the hotel industry and the South East of the state most particularly as that regions elected councillor on the AHA|SA Council for a total of 32 years.
Firstly from 1979 to 1995 and then a second period from 2005 to 2021.
Guy joined the family business in the mid-fifties and started a range of innovations that today seem quite sensible and normal. Guy’s headline act included hosting such mega acts at the Largs Pier such as Cold Chisel and AC/DC and overseeing the Buckingham Arms where the family introduced South Australia’s first Smorgasbord. What started as a 10 schilling per serve yourself, remained enormously popular with some 1500 covers a week at its peak.
But importantly this award acknowledges Guy’s service to the Association and in particular the representation of the South East sub-branch over a number of decades and in doing so for Guys continuing advocacy for rural hoteliers and his commitment to training, and industry standards, particularly his families contribution in time, energy and resources over decades to the TAFE and Regency Park training networks and regional training.
The second award was given posthumously to Tony Matthews. Tony died on 30 March 2019 at age 83. Being part of the Matthews Family group Tony worked in the business for 75 years and while choosing not to serve on the AHA|SA Council, his contribution to the industry was significant through the establishment of liquor marketing groups to empower the prominently SME hotels against the encroaching market power of supermarkets.
Tony was an integral driver in the formation of one of these first groups known as Bargains, which with Red, White, and Amber merged to form SipnSave. SipnSave remains to this day the single largest collective of Independent Liquor marketers in the state which is reflected in the disproportionate market share of Independent Liquor Retailers in SA compared to the National average.
Tony continued to share his expertise through service on the Marketing Committee of SipnSave for many years.
Tony is credited with starting the first drive-in bottle shop at the Larges Pier Hotel in 1955. Further innovations followed with the creation of counter meals in SA in the early 1960s for which he incurred the roth of the industry and was fined ten pound for his trouble by the then AHA|SA Council and General Secretary.
I’m unsure we ever collected the said fine because the concept of counter meals became entrenched among all operators from then on.
Tony and Guy were inducted into the Johnny Walker Hall of Fame at the National AHA Awards in 2011 recognising the collective contribution of both Tony and Guy and the Matthews family to that date.
Tony Matthews
Guy Matthews
