Catering Melbourne Blog

OECD Training Review

This week John Hart met with a group from the OECD that are reviewing the Vocation Education and Training System. The review is being undertaken by a group of experts from the US, UK, Germany and Australia. Their draft recommendations include:

· Moving to a more seamless State:Federal arrangement for the provision of training;

· Clearly making all training up to Cert. III free of charge at the point of delivery;

· Making higher level training subject to a HECS type repayment arrangement;

· Training Packages should be simplified (and reduced to basic core standards);

· Training forecasts should focus on destination trends (i.e. where trainees are getting jobs), and;

· Trainees should be able to choose the provider of their choice.

These recommendations are somewhat similar to some of the observations of the Boston Consulting Group Report discussed below.

R&CA will use both of these resources in making draft recommendations in its Skilling Australia submission being prepared in the next week or so.

Employment, Education and Training (EET)

This week has been a busy week in the EET policy domain. The activity has centred on the EET Ministers Meeting (which has been in Melbourne on Thursday/Friday). The announcement of the Skills Australia Board was at the heart of some of the policy announcements.

The Board of 7 includes Ms Heather Ridout (AIG), Ms Sharan Burrow (ACTU), Michael Keating (IPART), Prof. Gerald Bourke (ACER), Marie Persson (TAFE NSW), Mr Keith Spence (Enterprise Capability) and will be Chaired by ex IBM Executive Phillip Bullock.

Also released this week was a report commissioned by the previous Government into the Skills Shortage prepared by the Boston Consulting Group (attached). The report is essentially making recommendations in relation to funding, suggesting that more funds should be contestable (i.e. not provided to TAFE as recurrent funds).

Component Pricing Review

This week the Association lodged a short submission (attached) to the DRAFT Bill on Component Pricing. The letter suggests that the Association is concerned over the ongoing to inclusion of restaurant menus as ‘advertised prices’ and therefore opening menu pricing to further regulation requiring a SINGLE PRICE.

The recommendation in the letter is ‘to build in an explicit clarification that ‘in this section a restaurant menu is not an advertisement’. This solution would not only avoid any consequence of the new bill that one all up price should be stated for a meal but also mean that the parts of the Trade Practices Act requiring a GST inclusive price to be stated would also be resolved.

Savour Card

This week Restaurant & Catering Australia pitched the Savour Australia Card proposal to Visa (as discussed at the recent R&CA Board Meeting). The pitch follows some of the concerns around long (7year) waiting periods for revenues etc having been clarified.

The partner for the distribution of the card has been slightly changed to another division of the company originally chosen (212F). The new partner is Secure Cash Express. They are very positive about the launch of the card and are now anticipating 50,000 cards being produced in the first year.

As previously detailed the card volumes in the US are around $17 Billion. Converted to the Australian market this would translate to a figure of around $650 Million.

Visa listened carefully to the proposal and will respond in the coming month as to whether they will support the launch. The support would include a sponsorship arrangement of the R&CA if forthcoming.

Cracks in bottling industry

Bottling water is a $10.8bn-a-year industry in the U.S., and demand is growing at 8 per cent a year.

From California to New Hampshire and Florida, corporate giants such as Nestle, Coca-Cola and Crystal Geyser are looking for new sources of water but are running into resistance. Opposition in Wisconsin forced Nestle to abandon plans by its Perrier subsidiary to build a $US100 million bottling plant. In Michigan, residents are engaged in a similar legal dispute against Nestle. Last September, Napa, in the heart of Northern California’s wine country, rejected Crystal Geyser’s application to tap into the city’s aquifer to bottle mineral water. Supporters of bottling plants see them as a vital source of jobs and revenue.

Others fear that pumping large amounts of water from the ground will drain wells, creeks and streams. From California to New Hampshire and Florida, corporate giants such as Nestle, build a $US100m bottling plant. The Advertiser (Adelaide),

April 11.

Council faces food fight

A group of Newcastle business people has called on the city council to drop its “one-size-fits-all” restaurant and cafe footpath dining policy. They want the ruling, that all tables and chairs must be on the kerbside of footpaths, removed so some proprietors can have seating on the shop side of footpaths. Consultant Brian Eastoe addressed the council last week on behalf of the Restaurant and Caterers Association, the Newcastle Alliance and several restaurateurs. Mr Eastoe said the council should decide outdoor seating arrangements case by case, encouraging greater diversity and considering pedestrian flows and motor vehicle volumes near individual establishments. Mary McElhinney, of Arrivederci cafe, at The Junction, told The Herald the policy was endangering diners, obscuring the vision of motorists, inconveniencing pedestrians and costing her business money. Newcastle Herald, April 14.

Less for your dough

The days of big slices coming off pizza prices are gone as fast-food chains absorb rising input costs. But the pizza companies have other ways to hit your wallet and waistline this year. Australian fast-food chains including Domino’s Pizza and Eagle Boys are promoting quality, menu variety and value-for-money offerings to tempt customers as family budgets tighten. They are being held back from savage pizza price discounting wars because they are negotiating a massive rise in prices of key ingredients including wheat—its price has more than doubled in a year and cheese and meat for toppings. Food industry experts say that because Australia’s economy needs to slow to avert inflationary pressures, this probably will mean slowing growth for the fast-food chains. But they should weather the storm in reasonable shape because consumers might opt for fast food instead of trips to more expensive restaurants. The Courier Mail, April 19.

Beyond the $40 course: rising costs set to bite diners

Restaurateur Matteo Pignatelli has taken tomatoes and asparagus off the menu this month. They have just become too expensive. Mr Pignatelli, the owner of Matteo’s Restaurant in North Fitzroy, has felt the full impact of soaring food prices, which have risen well above inflation over the past five years - not only for milk, butter and flour, but also for vegetables and meat. And according to food industry experts, prices are set to rise further in 2008. As a consequence, Mr Pignatelli has regularly had to change the menu, which ranges from $35 to $40 for a main meal, in order to take off foods that soar in price. The menu is now one page, making it easier to reprint and change. “This has been the sharpest increase (in food) in the shortest span of time. Almost overnight it’s gone up 20%,” he said. The drought, water shortages, high grain prices and booming overseas demand for some Australian produce is putting pressure on food prices. And although the focus of the food issue in Melbourne has been on the rising price of groceries on supermarket shelves, menu prices in the city are also slowly creeping up. Todd Blake, the chief executive officer of Restaurant & Catering Victoria, said restaurant owners believed price rises were essential if they were to break even, as they grappled not only with the rising cost of food, but also with increased costs of labour and rent. The Age, April 19.

Rats don’t deter diners

A Chinese restaurant in Sydney’s west accused of having rotten meat and food prepared in a rat- and cockroach-infested kitchen is still serving customers. Best 1 Barbecue, at Burwood, was slapped with eight health defect notices by the NSW Food Authority seven weeks ago, in addition to infringement notices issued by Burwood Council. Horrors allegedly seen by inspectors included meat not in a cool room, filthy walls and a “build-up of grease and oil, cockroach bodies, rodent and cockroach excreta”. All but one defect had since been “rectified”. A spokesman said the authority had been forced to intervene after restaurant staff threw meat at a council inspector. The inspector had been investigating a complaint that customers were being served spoiled food, prepared with dirty water. Laws allowing the authority to name restaurants flouting food laws take effect later this year, but will not extend to councils. The Burwood restaurant was identified by a local newspaper after the paper urged residents to forward complaints about the eatery to Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald. Sunday Telegraph, April 20.

Sanitarium returns to shopfront

Sanitarium has chosen the Brisbane central business district as the location for its pilot Australian health food store. The company has opened a shop in 145 Eagle St after buying the Aztec Coffee business and taking over its lease. While it has operated health food stores all around Australia from about 1904, in the mid-1980s Sanitarium shut up shop due to the push out of strip shopping into malls. But—in a bid to reinvigorate its brand—the 110-year-old company has decided that it will open its first health food store in more than 20 years. Deborah Peralta of Sanitarium said the idea was to return the company to its original roots and bring healthy food direct to people through caring and considerate service. She said she had searched Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane for nearly two years to find the right spot for the shop. “I walked the streets of Brisbane looking for a site,” she said. “I was looking for a premises that was in a corporate business area that would afford me some outdoor space, as well as create something beautiful inside.” The Eagle Street shop has 87sq m of internal space plus an outdoor dining area. Ms Peralta said the company had already carried out some refurbishments, particularly the outdoor area—which was repaved, fitted with retractable awnings and decorated with lemon trees and fresh rosemary. The Courier Mail (Brisbane), April 25.