In 2020, it announced 700 job cuts, mainly in Auckland, due to weaker economies, lower personal disposable income, changed entertainment habits, restrictions on mass gatherings and physical distancing requirements.
Now, Ahearne says the business is growing rapidly: “We’ve recruited about 1200 people in the last 12 months. Employee numbers are nearly 4400. We have about 450 vacancies, so I’ll be hoping that in a year’s time, we’ll be back to 5000 employees again.”
Most staff are in Auckland, where around 2700 work for the business as its casino, hotels, restaurants, bars and tourism attractions like the SkyTower. Ahearne said Auckland needed more people than anywhere else SkyCity operates.
“To be honest most of the recruitment is in Auckland. It’s across the board, hospitality in particular. The majority work in hotels, and restaurants, but even in corporate areas it’s challenging to recruit. Like every business, it’s tough right now.”
On Seek, SkyCity is advertising for an Auckland hotel night manager for $55,000 to $65,000 plus benefits, a commissionaire/front door person at the SkyCity Grande in Auckland, a reservations group specialist in the city, an Auckland concierge, a trainee table games dealer, a revenue auditor, a sponsorship manager, housekeeping supervisor, bartender, plumber, chef and a kitchen steward in Hamilton.
Staffing shortages have become one of the main barriers to business with one survey last year citing this as a major impediment. More than eight in 10 restaurant businesses are understaffed and 62 per cent of eateries had to temporarily close in August due to staffing challenges, a Restaurant Association survey found.
SkyCity said today that 58 per cent of its revenue comes from Auckland, 28 per cent from Adelaide, 8 per cent from Hamilton, 1 per cent from Queenstown, 3 per cent from international and 2 per cent online.
Ahearne said today that pre-Covid, SkyTower got around 600,000 annual visitors and in December, around 85 per cent of those numbers visited.
“We see our trajectory getting back. SkyTower is as popular as it has been.”
Good news on the fire-dogged NZ International Convention Centre and its bookings too: “There’s about 100 conferences in the pipeline. We’ve got our sales team in place working internationally. Some of those are locked in already for 2026, it’s looking promising.”
In today’s result, the company noted more New Zealanders visiting and a recovery in the tourism sector.
The NZICC and Horizon Hotel projects were progressing well: the hotel is due to be finished next year and the convention centre a year later “with [a] strong pipeline of international demand”.
SkyCity is facing charges that it allowed dozens of gamblers into its Adelaide casino to launder almost A$4b over six years.
The cost of penalties remains unknown, the company said today: “The fact that we’re not able to make a provision means we’re not able to accurately estimate it. I can’t give you a number at this time,” Ahearne said.
In the latest half year, $6m has been spent on the action but all up, $10m, a presentation said.
On SkyCity responding further to losing a $220m deal to sell Auckland car parks to Macquarie because Fletcher Construction was late with the NZICC, Ahearne said today: “I’m not going to make any comments. There’s a lot of complexity associated with NZICC fire and the car park situation is just an example of that.”
Shares are trading up slightly today at $2.58.
