How did we get here?
The experience of Covid-19 has been surreal for me. Just to put things in to context I think I need to jump back a few steps;
The last 5 years has been MASSIVE for me. Talk about growing up, wholly hika! The 2015/2016 summer was the kickstart to the craziness and probably best shows the enormity of past half a decade. It played out like this;
February - our parent company has its single biggest summer of tours EVER after 25 years of operation.
March - my gf and I buy our first home and move in straight away. 2 days later Crankworx starts (I was the Event Director at the time). 3 days after Crankworx the love of my life is born.
Fast forward to now and we've gone from a staff roster of 20 to 60 and a revenue stream that has dipped to almost zero. About three quarters of our revenue is from international tourists and the outlook.... grim.
It's funny though, I say the outlook is grim not because of the businesses. We know our group of companies can make it out the other end of this situation, at worst case going in to hibernation for 1-2 years. But our goal is to pull all 60 of our staff right through this global crisis and that is seeming more and more difficult everyday. You only have to look at what other tourism businesses have done over the past 2 months to see the absolute financial devastation of Covid-19.
We've already made the call though. Forget profits. Don't even think about these for next couple of years. This is about survival and survival for us is having our work whanau by our side.
So how did we get here to Wheelies.shop?
I've always prided our team with being flexible, nimble and out of the box thinkers that always have the people at forefront of mind. Whether it's our guides on tour or the drivers on our buses, it should always boil down to the people.
Those 60 people that we have in our care need us, now more then ever, to think outside the box and find the path that will keep us together and see us through. Wheelies was one of those paths.
What we also recognised was that there is also going to be a big call for help from charities. If you don't know it yet you will soon. Charities are being decimated for funding with grants being pulled or rejected left, right and centre. So can we kill two birds with one stone? I sure hope so.
The idea to give a percentage of gross revenue back to charities was an easy one. When Tu, Ari and I were spit balling this one came up in the first 5 seconds... and was agreed to in the next 5 seconds. And we hadn't even drunk a drop hahaha.
Photo Credit: Ariki Tibble
Caption: I'm the one down the back with the tutu daughter that wouldn't stop moving while flying down the luge track
The last 5 years has been MASSIVE for me. Talk about growing up, wholly hika! The 2015/2016 summer was the kickstart to the craziness and probably best shows the enormity of past half a decade. It played out like this;
February - our parent company has its single biggest summer of tours EVER after 25 years of operation.
March - my gf and I buy our first home and move in straight away. 2 days later Crankworx starts (I was the Event Director at the time). 3 days after Crankworx the love of my life is born.
Fast forward to now and we've gone from a staff roster of 20 to 60 and a revenue stream that has dipped to almost zero. About three quarters of our revenue is from international tourists and the outlook.... grim.
It's funny though, I say the outlook is grim not because of the businesses. We know our group of companies can make it out the other end of this situation, at worst case going in to hibernation for 1-2 years. But our goal is to pull all 60 of our staff right through this global crisis and that is seeming more and more difficult everyday. You only have to look at what other tourism businesses have done over the past 2 months to see the absolute financial devastation of Covid-19.
We've already made the call though. Forget profits. Don't even think about these for next couple of years. This is about survival and survival for us is having our work whanau by our side.
So how did we get here to Wheelies.shop?
I've always prided our team with being flexible, nimble and out of the box thinkers that always have the people at forefront of mind. Whether it's our guides on tour or the drivers on our buses, it should always boil down to the people.
Those 60 people that we have in our care need us, now more then ever, to think outside the box and find the path that will keep us together and see us through. Wheelies was one of those paths.
What we also recognised was that there is also going to be a big call for help from charities. If you don't know it yet you will soon. Charities are being decimated for funding with grants being pulled or rejected left, right and centre. So can we kill two birds with one stone? I sure hope so.
The idea to give a percentage of gross revenue back to charities was an easy one. When Tu, Ari and I were spit balling this one came up in the first 5 seconds... and was agreed to in the next 5 seconds. And we hadn't even drunk a drop hahaha.
Photo Credit: Ariki Tibble
Caption: I'm the one down the back with the tutu daughter that wouldn't stop moving while flying down the luge track
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