Restaurant's desperate plea for help to pay staff as it closes its doors
An upmarket restaurant has pleaded for help from the community for assistance in paying staff and suppliers after rising costs left it with no option but to close its doors.
Owners of Co-Op Dining in East Perth, Western Australia, announced in a GoFundMe page last week that rising rent at the hands of their “greedy landlord” meant they could not afford to stay open.
Kiren and Kelli Mainwaring opened the ritzy establishment in 2012, but said their “lifelong dream of running a restaurant” had come to an end due to financial hardship.
“With the economic change in Western Australia and an overseas greedy landlord, we have had to vacate our restaurant unexpectedly and prematurely,” its GoFundMe page stated.
They appealed to the public to help them raise $5,000 to pay employees and suppliers, claiming their funds had completely dried up.
“Our main concern is to see that our devoted staff and supportive suppliers get paid,” they wrote.
“We have done our best to pay what we can before the negotiations failed. We have exhausted all solutions.”
The business marketed itself as “degustation dining” with a “menu of local, sustainable produce from our amazing WA growers”.
“We were struggling month to month and working for nothing to try to keep it alive and our landlord wanted to put [our rent] up,” Mr Mainwaring told Broadsheet.
While $1,136 had been raised in four days, some expressed their disapproval of the restaurant’s approach to saving its business.
“You are an employer asking for donations to pay your staff? Maybe look at the fundraisers on here for children with cancer and explain why you deserve donations more than them,” one person wrote to the fundraising page.
The East Perth Community Group Inc Facebook page claimed the restaurant had faced a “rent increase in an area with at least 50% commercial vacancy”.
Many people empathised for the 4.5/5 rated business and its financial conundrum.
“International landlords often have little appreciation of the local economic context. Very disappointing for all involved,” a Facebook user commented on the post.
“You would think that Landlords would prefer ongoing tenants rather than empty shops/venues,” someone else said.
The restaurant assured its loyal customers it was determined to re-open its doors.
“We will be back!,” the owners wrote at the bottom of their GoFundMe page.
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