Caterers struggling to keep their businesses alive

Cafe Devine is on Cashel St, opposite the collapsed CTV building (pictured). Photo / Sarah Ivey

Two months ago Janine Kenyon watched her commercial ovens bounce around her bakery like ping-pong balls.

Now with staff leaving, two shops and a cafe closed, she is fighting to keep her business alive.

She spent the weekend after February's earthquake baking wedding cakes for brides who refused to cancel their nuptial plans.

Since then Kenyon and her husband and business partner Craig have been working hard to get another Devine Cakes and Desserts store up and running and to retain staff members.

Their cafe, Devine, on Cashel St is opposite the collapsed CTV building.

Kenyon said her husband was allowed into the cafe for 45 minutes last week to fit as much stuff as possible into four wheelie bins.

She said his safety vest and hard hat "stank " after being in the building for only 45 minutes and her car reeked with "disgustingness".

The cafe's outdoor furniture has gone missing, and the tables and chairs from inside have also disappeared.

"We don't know about that business [the cafe]. We don't know when we will be able to reopen. We're trying to ride it out. To retain what we have got. We are thinking of getting a mobile cafe, we just need somewhere to park it. A lot of people have gone out to the suburbs, so a mobile cafe would be able to utilise that business. We are really trying to fight. To keep on going."

The new store being set up at Northlands Shopping Mall will need new fridges. There are two worth $15,000 sitting in the cafe on Cashel St but they can't get them out for safety reasons.

Kenyon lost two shops and "everything in them" in February, one at the Eastgate Mall and the other at The Palms Shopping Centre. The shop at Eastgate was demolished and The Palms could re-open in July, "although no one really knows".

"It's painful not having any control. Staff keep asking us what's going on. They think you must know something. But we don't, we're just trying to keep jobs going." Kenyon said orders had dropped back a bit from the operational Blenheim Rd store and Westfield Mall, both in Riccarton.

She said it was frustrating living in limbo and operating a business in such an uncertain environment.

"We have only been contacted once [by Civil Defence].

"It's the only contact we have had [from any authorities].

"We're starting up a new shop and we need our equipment. But it seems we're not a priority, they just don't want to hear. We're in the 'too hard' basket."

A Recovery Christchurch spokesperson said people were allowed into their businesses but in a very controlled manner and businesses needed to register to do so.