Orlando restaurant making strides to recover from COVID economy
ORLANDO, Fla. - A local restaurant was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month is finally celebrating that they are no longer operating in the red.
Known for their scratch-Asian street food, Hawkers has been a bustling lunchtime and dinner favorite in Orlando for almost ten years, but when the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the nation, their business took a major hit.
“We were losing about over $150,000 a week was going out the door,” said Kaleb Harrell, Co-Founder and CEO of Hawkers. “Some of that was a conscious decision. We wanted to avoid layoffs. We wanted to be able to keep every single salaried manager-employee and we’ve been able to not close any restaurants.”
Determined to keep going, they had to pivot. Offering takeout, delivery and deals.
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a few days where I’d come home and feel beaten up and a little discouraged,” Harrell said.
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Not waiting for better news about the pandemic, the restaurant put together task forces focusing on specific parts of the business and new business.
“Over the last six weeks we’ve been able to put together a pretty incredible group of task forces that have managed to get us to a cash flow breakeven point,” Harrell said. “To the point where we’re no longer losing money. I think the next step is you try to make money.”
While the owner said Hawkers is here to stay, he admits he doesn’t know when things will ever truly get back to “normal.”
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“We’ve recovered to about 20 percent,” he said.
They’re taking each small victory as a step in the right direction.
“To say people were excited and relieved is an understatement,” Harrell said.