7 in 10 Australian businesses have seen revenue loss due to the coronavirus, according to new ABS figures
by Sharon Masige
- A survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics found 7 in 10 businesses have had their revenue decline because of the coronavirus pandemic.
- The survey also noted that the pandemic has led 70% of businesses to change the way they operate.
- Nearly three quarters of businesses have accessed government support due to the pandemic.
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The coronavirus has had a massive impact on Australian businesses.
A survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found the coronavirus has made 70% of Aussie businesses change the way they operate. It also found that 7 in 10 businesses (72%) had a drop in revenue as a result of the pandemic.
“Businesses that had changed the way they operate were more than twice as likely to report a decrease in revenue compared with those that were trading normally, 83 per cent against 37 per cent,” ABS Head of Industry Statistics John Shepherd said in a statement.
Many companies around Australia have altered how they usually conduct their business during the pandemic. The forced closure of restaurants in March forced many to switch to delivery apps and takeaway options. In March, nearly 1,700 new restaurants signed up to Deliveroo over the last month, while Menulog received “a high volume” of requests to join its platform.
Restaurants also got creative with their offerings, like hospitality group Merivale launching its own ‘Merivale and Home’ service where you can order a box full of ingredients to make signature dishes from the group’s top restaurants.
It wasn’t just restaurants making a change. The Royal Hotel in Leichhardt repurposed its bottle shop into a ‘Liquors and Essentials store’ so customers could pick up groceries. Manufacturers like Ford, pivoted to make ventilators for the fight against coronavirus and distilleries like Archie Rose decided to to make hand sanitiser.
The ABS survey also looked at businesses accessing government support
It found that nearly three-quarters of Aussie businesses got access to government support because of the coronavirus, including wage subsidies (55%) and other government support measures (38%).
Earlier this May, the federal government revealed a reporting error which led to it overestimating the cost of the JobKeeper wage subsidy program by $60 billion. The Treasury found that the program was only supporting 3.5 million workers instead of the 6.5 million it originally mentioned.
According to the ABS report, businesses also expect some level of impact from government imposed restrictions over the next two months, mostly from social distancing (71%), trade restrictions (63%) and travel restrictions (50%).
READ MORE:
- Apps like Menulog are reporting a surge in restaurants signing up for delivery – as a petition circulates demanding platform fees be slashed
- Australian restaurants share how they plan to reopen for sit-in dining, as state governments roll back COVID-19 restrictions
- A list of companies in Australia which are adapting and changing to serve customers through the coronavirus pandemic
- ‘Our team has been able to quickly pivot’: Ford Australia has been manufacturing face shields for the fight against the coronavirus