Gold Coast restaurants have been hit very hard in the past few months, we’ve seen many local favourites close their doors; some blame the Global Financial Crisis while others believe that the popularity of Masterchef has inspired people to cook at home more often.
Whatever the reason, it seems for the many restaurants doing it tough and that there may be no end in sight.
However, Broadbeach Restaurateur Andrew McElhone who owns the multi award winning venues; Yellowfin Seafood Restaurant, 1 two 3 Mediterranean Dining & Lounge Bar, and Sage Restaurant has found that through Bartercard he has been able to offset some of his cash expenses and get more customers through the door.
He stated “It is always good to have a busy looking restaurant; customers and potential customers always deem this to indicate quality and value. So Bartercard is perfect for both slower and semi busy times; with bums on seats passerbys make a mental note that they must dine there then and there or at a later time.”
Mr. McElhone continued “To counter this [the quiet months this year] I have picked up the volume of my Bartercard sales and spent a little more time on ensuring I get lots of good business expenses on Bartercard. This extra effort has seen my sales return to normal in a short time and I have spent my Barter dollars just as quickly as I have received them, so Bartercard has been a massive help during these quieter months. “
Mr. McElhone has been a Bartercard member for about 6 years and in his experience he has used his Bartercard to offset both business and personal expenses “probably 90% of my spend is on business expenses and 10% on personal.“
He boasts having great holidays, and many personal lifestyle improvements thanks to his extra barter business as well as business expenses like painting, pest control, upholstery cleaning, graphic design and printing, photography, equipment hire, staff entertainment, framing, he has even been able to buy over $1 million of wine to supply his restaurants.
He believes in his time as a Bartercard Member he has saved approximately $900,000 in cash.
Using Bartercard to his advantage as well as utilizing the internet and social media to promote his businesses has seemingly helped Mr. McElhone cope in this trying time.
The Sage Restaurant has won the 2010 National I Love Food Award for Favourite Family Restaurant while 1two3 Mediterranean has won Australia’s Favourite ‘Flavours of the World’.
Sage and Yellowfin Seafood Restaurants are open at 12pm daily while 1two3 Mediterranean is open daily from 7am. For more information on each restaurant find them on the web or Facebook or download the 1two3 Mediterranean iPhone application.
