Cambodia's Service and Hospitality Businesses are Struggling
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 11:10 pm
Businesses struggle to survive as the third wave of Covid-19 hits Cambodia
19 March 2021 9:10 AM
Sorn Sarath
It’s lunch time but there are only a few diners at the Park Café on Mao Tse Tung Blvd.
At the restaurant’s entrance, staff wearing face masks check customers’ temperatures and give them hand sanitizer before they are allowed in.
Heng Sengly, managing director of Park Café — which has 16 restaurants in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Kampong Cham — said that the number of people dining in had dropped twice as much as they had during previous outbreaks.
“This time everything is getting worse than before. The third outbreak of Covid-19 is more serious,” he said.
With a total of around 500 staff, the company is looking to avoid job cuts.
“We are trying to find way to boost our sales to comply with the new normal of Covid-19,” he said.
Delivery service has become core to keeping the business afloat, helping offset the losses as indoor dining plummets.
“People don’t want to touch cash, so we have digital payment that offers a safe alternative,” he said.
Since the global pandemic began in January 2020, Cambodia has recorded a total of 1578 cases of Covid-19 — 1062 of them related to a single community transmission cluster that began on February 20, 2021, and which continues to grow.
Tep Virak, general manager of the Express Food Group (EFG), which operates six brands across 70 shops in Cambodia said that the company is considering closing some shops as the outbreak continues.
Virak said next week the management team will start to evaluate all 70 stores to decided how many shops must be closed.
“We hardly earn even a hundred dollar a day in some stores. It’s a hard time,” he said. “We will finalize with the management team to decide which shops should be closed because we cannot handle such a huge loss, we need to close to save costs.”
He said overall business has declined by more than 80 percent since the latest outbreak began.
EFG’s six brands include the Pizza Company, Swensen’s, Dairy Queen, Krispy Kreme, Bar BQ Plaza and the Coffee Club.
EFG has more than 1,250 employees, according to Virak, who said cutting jobs would be a last resort.
“We need to see the real situation — whether we can transfer some staff to other branches or whether we need to cut them as the last option,” he said. “For locations that cannot generate revenue we need to close them down. We don’t want to cut staff, though, because it will affect their livelihood as they may find it hard to get a new job during the pandemic.”
The government has provided a tax exemption for all tourism-related businesses or services since the start of the pandemic and has given monthly stipends to assist garment workerswho have lost their jobs, as well as poor people — though that is set to end this month after being extended in January.
https://cambojanews.com/businesses-stru ... -cambodia/
19 March 2021 9:10 AM
Sorn Sarath
It’s lunch time but there are only a few diners at the Park Café on Mao Tse Tung Blvd.
At the restaurant’s entrance, staff wearing face masks check customers’ temperatures and give them hand sanitizer before they are allowed in.
Heng Sengly, managing director of Park Café — which has 16 restaurants in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Kampong Cham — said that the number of people dining in had dropped twice as much as they had during previous outbreaks.
“This time everything is getting worse than before. The third outbreak of Covid-19 is more serious,” he said.
With a total of around 500 staff, the company is looking to avoid job cuts.
“We are trying to find way to boost our sales to comply with the new normal of Covid-19,” he said.
Delivery service has become core to keeping the business afloat, helping offset the losses as indoor dining plummets.
“People don’t want to touch cash, so we have digital payment that offers a safe alternative,” he said.
Since the global pandemic began in January 2020, Cambodia has recorded a total of 1578 cases of Covid-19 — 1062 of them related to a single community transmission cluster that began on February 20, 2021, and which continues to grow.
Tep Virak, general manager of the Express Food Group (EFG), which operates six brands across 70 shops in Cambodia said that the company is considering closing some shops as the outbreak continues.
Virak said next week the management team will start to evaluate all 70 stores to decided how many shops must be closed.
“We hardly earn even a hundred dollar a day in some stores. It’s a hard time,” he said. “We will finalize with the management team to decide which shops should be closed because we cannot handle such a huge loss, we need to close to save costs.”
He said overall business has declined by more than 80 percent since the latest outbreak began.
EFG’s six brands include the Pizza Company, Swensen’s, Dairy Queen, Krispy Kreme, Bar BQ Plaza and the Coffee Club.
EFG has more than 1,250 employees, according to Virak, who said cutting jobs would be a last resort.
“We need to see the real situation — whether we can transfer some staff to other branches or whether we need to cut them as the last option,” he said. “For locations that cannot generate revenue we need to close them down. We don’t want to cut staff, though, because it will affect their livelihood as they may find it hard to get a new job during the pandemic.”
The government has provided a tax exemption for all tourism-related businesses or services since the start of the pandemic and has given monthly stipends to assist garment workerswho have lost their jobs, as well as poor people — though that is set to end this month after being extended in January.
https://cambojanews.com/businesses-stru ... -cambodia/