Sugar On Top: Plea for support from Hawke’s Bay hospitality businesses provides big boosts

Napier business Sugar On Top owner Shannon Story said she was down in sales by 60% in comparison to 2024.

A boutique Napier bakery’s plea for customers in a bid to stay open has led to another huge community response.

But Sugar on Top owner Shannon Story says the need to be so vulnerable is hard, and it will only be a band-aid solution to a wider problem faced by many small businesses.

Story said she had been dealing with a 60% drop in sales compared to the year before, and feared she potentially would have to close within six months, and so decided to put a post up on social media.

Then the community rallied, and Thursday and Friday proved to be sell-out days.

Story said the post, on Wednesday, was a last resort, but nevertheless, she outlined her struggles, which she said were all too familiar for many small businesses in the region.

A similar cry for help was made by Hastings’ business, Mamas Donuts, whose owner Emily Whiu said she was “struggling terribly” and selling about half of what she needed to sell each week to survive.

“You’ve all seen so many posts from small businesses like mine struggling, now here’s mine,” Story wrote on Facebook.

“If you asked me eight months ago if I felt the effect from the s*** show that is our current economy, I would have said yes, but we could get through it.

“If you asked me today, I’d say I’ve never struggled like this in the four years I have been in business and like so many this year, we are pretty close to having to close our doors, which is such a lump in the throat gut gut-wrenching thing to admit.”

Story, who opened the business at 26a Latham St in 2021, said a lot more sales were needed to save the business, but she was determined to do so.

“It’s been such a hard year, and I kind of feel like I owe it to myself to give it one last shot because if I don’t, the reality is we potentially do have to close our doors.

“It’s been so defeating and deflating when people aren’t coming through the doors, and you are wasting stock, and I’ve ultimately wasted my time.”

She said she had noticed a decline in customer sales a year ago; however, it was over the past eight months that it had got bad.

“People are potentially too scared to spend money because it is all over social media and in the news, about how no one has got any money, and people are holding onto what little they do have.

“The first thing that goes is a little treat because you can’t afford it and opt for the cheaper option at the supermarket, and I absolutely understand that.”

She said the lack of business, coupled with costs such as commercial rent, rates, commercial insurance, tax, GST, council fees, music licensing fees, along ingredients for her products made it difficult.

“I need to keep consistent people coming through the doors, even if they are not spending much.”

Story said she would be closing the business for three weeks at Christmas so she could take a break with her family and hoped to return fresh for 2026.

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.