04/10/2026
‘There’s no juice left in the lime’: Matilda’s owner warns of growing pressure on Coffs Coast hospitality
A Nambucca Heads restaurant owner has delivered a heartfelt message about the mounting pressures facing small hospitality businesses, warning that rising operating costs are making it increasingly difficult to keep local venues open and prices affordable.
Jane, the owner of Matilda’s Nambucca Heads, took to social media to explain why customers may be seeing higher prices at their favourite local restaurants and cafés.
Her message comes as hospitality businesses across the Coffs Coast and Mid North Coast continue to navigate rising wages, energy costs, insurance, food prices and other overheads.
Jane said the challenges facing small businesses were often misunderstood by customers.
“This year I want you to know that small businesses are on the same side of the counter as you,” she wrote.
For Jane, Matilda’s is about far more than selling food.
She said customers often tell her about the memories associated with the restaurant — from first dates and children’s birthdays to Friday nights when parents finally manage to get a babysitter.
“Your local restaurant or cafe is where the neighbourhood gets together,” she said.
“We want to keep being that place. But honestly, it’s getting harder for us, and it’s getting harder for you too.”
Rising costs squeeze both sides of the counter
Jane’s comments highlight the difficult balancing act facing hospitality operators.
She said wages and superannuation at her restaurant had increased by more than 30 per cent over five years, while electricity costs had risen by more than 50 per cent and gas had more than doubled.
Together, she said, those increases were costing the restaurant more than $45,000 a year.
And those costs come on top of fuel, insurance, interest rates, food and other business expenses.
Jane also pointed to the increasingly narrow margin restaurants can have on individual meals.
Using a $34 pizza as an example, she said the restaurant might ultimately retain only around $1 to $2, while GST and other costs take a significant portion of the sale.
“For years we’ve absorbed it,” she said.
“We’ve redesigned menus, negotiated hard with suppliers and squeezed what we spend on ingredients. There’s no juice left in the lime.”
Card payments another pressure
Jane also addressed the issue of card payment surcharges, following the introduction of a ban on businesses passing certain card-payment surcharges directly onto customers.
While customers may welcome seeing fewer additional charges at the till, Jane said the underlying banking costs did not disappear.
Instead, businesses have to absorb those costs or factor them into their overall pricing.
“Small businesses absorb it, not the banks, and sooner or later it ends up in the menu price,” she said.
Hospitality businesses operating on thin margins
The pressures highlighted by Jane are occurring against a difficult national backdrop for the hospitality sector.
Restaurants, cafés and takeaway businesses have faced a combination of higher labour costs, food inflation, energy bills, insurance premiums and changing consumer spending.
For customers already dealing with higher mortgage repayments, rent, groceries and household bills, eating out can increasingly become a discretionary expense.
That creates a difficult situation for hospitality operators.
Businesses need to charge enough to cover their costs, while customers are simultaneously becoming more price-sensitive.
Jane said price increases at local venues should therefore not automatically be interpreted as businesses simply trying to make more money.
“So when prices increase up at your favourite place in the Valley, please know it isn’t greed,” she said.
“It’s what it takes to keep the lights on and keep locals in jobs.”
A plea to support local businesses
Jane finished her message with two simple suggestions for customers: pay cash when possible and book ahead.
She also asked customers to remember that the person serving them is often experiencing the same cost-of-living pressures as they are.
“The person taking your order is on the same side of the counter as you,” she said.
“They’re your neighbours, feeling the same squeeze. A bit of patience and a smile goes a long way on a long shift.”
Her message is ultimately a reminder that the survival of a local restaurant is not just about whether a particular meal remains on a menu.
For many communities across the Coffs Coast and surrounding towns, cafés, restaurants, pubs and takeaway shops provide employment, social spaces and places where people mark birthdays, anniversaries, first dates and ordinary Friday nights.
As the cost of doing business continues to rise, local hospitality operators are increasingly asking customers to understand what sits behind the price on the menu — and to continue supporting the businesses that help give their communities a place to come together.
Jane’s message was simple:
“Let’s look out for each other and keep supporting local hospitality businesses.”
