Magne makes a living renting skis and bicycles, now he has to sell because crisis aid is too late – E24

– It’s a bit cold in here. I’ve turned the heat down to save money on electricity. It’s just me who’s freezing, it’s just me here now, the rest are fired. I warm myself in front of the stove when I get home, says owner and general manager Magne Aarbø at Tromsø Outdoor.

He wears an outer jacket on the premises of the tourist shop who makes a living by renting bikes and ski packages and guides tourists on Nordlys safaris and ski and bike trips. In the room in the middle of central Tromsø there are rows of intact fat bikes and electric bikes. A few hundred pairs of randonee skis are unused. None of the winter or slalom shoes on the shelves are rented.

– It is shocking. It’s standing here rotting. Not good. I rented a warm suit last weekend and that’s the only income we’ve had in the last two weeks. Now I’m going to separate two cars to save that money, says Aarbø.

Taper billion

A grove of reindeer hides has been put up for sale cheaply in the window overlooking Skippergata, where the Flyt nightclub across the street recently went bankrupt. Businesses in Tromsø and northern Norway that made money from tourists have been hit hard by the pandemic.

The winter season is normally peak season, but with a new round of pandemic and closure, the entire winter season is lost, Aarbø believes.

– Income for the winter season has been lost overall, and we have 80 percent of our income in the winter, he says.

With the lost winter season, Tromsø’s tourism industry will lose more than two billion crowns from March this year to March next year. Businesses have already lost more than 1 billion crowns and only received part of the losses offset by the crisis package.

The government recently unveiled a new multi-billion kronor crisis package to which companies can apply for losses to be covered this fall. But the money will not be paid until next year. It is too late for many companies iTromsø has spoken to.

Aarbø has to pay rent every month for 400 square meters in the center of Tromsø, and needs to have his maintenance paid at fixed costs now, and not in February as the government proposes. The government’s proposal to borrow money from the bank until the support is paid will not work, Aarbø believes.

– I’ve already gotten what I can from personal loans and loans at the bank. I have used what we had of money. Now we and many others are in a critical phase. There is already an increase in bankruptcies. It’s too late to pay for post-Christmas wreath support, it’s devastating for many, he says.

Must sell what will live

Aarbø takes us inside the 150-year-old house, up a flight of stairs and once to several warehouses with stacks of touring bikes and bicycle wheels, thermal suits and poles, ski shovels, snowshoes and bags.

Aarbø rented ski and bike packages from Hurtigruten. His only chance to survive until the maintenance money is paid is to sell the stock of skis and bicycles, even if it is precisely skis and bicycles that he will earn a living by renting.

– It’s critic. We have to sell skis and bicycles to survive, to avoid bankruptcy. I have been building this inventory of skis and bicycles for 10 years. It’s my bank, there’s equipment here for several million crowns, says Aarbø and looks around the old facilities.

He has been building the company for 10 years, which last year had a turnover of 9 million crowns and seven permanent employees. In March, 20 people were working full time at the company when the pandemic struck the company and tourists stopped traveling to Norway. He has already sold skis and bicycles for a million kronor to pay for employee vacations.

– If I sell all the randonee skis, I have nothing to live for. If I sell all the bikes, I have nothing to live on. Then he shot me in the foot. It is a crisis. We have a lot of fixed costs to pay and not a penny in revenue, says Aarbø.

Bankrupt before help arrives

He believes the government’s crisis package is good, but that more companies will go out of business if financial support for the fall months is not paid until next year.

– It seems as if the Minister of Commerce and Industry does not understand what the tourism industry is. The government must intervene faster to save companies. The crisis package would have been nice if it had provided help in time. Many will now go bankrupt before the plan is implemented. For our part, we are forced to sell the operating assets that we will live on, says Aarbø.

According to NHO, Tromsø and northern Norway have a higher proportion of tourism businesses than the rest of the country and are the most affected by the pandemic. The resort city of Tromsø has so far this year a 50 percent increase in the number of bankruptcies and dissolved companies, while there is a decrease in the rest of the country.

He goes upstairs to display more equipment that may have to be sold to save his life’s work. The elevator goes up to the break room and the office says, “We have disconnected the elevator, it is too expensive to run,” according to Aarbø.

– What I fear the most is losing permanent employees, who over the years have built competencies and are important key people in the company. They have been laid off for eight months. If they disappear, I’ll be left on the bare ground, he says.

“Too little and too late”

Storting representative Cecilie Terese Myrseth (AP) on the Storting business committee is highly critical of the government’s crisis package.

– The government does not seem to be prepared for a new wave of corona. It is a pity that a payment solution has not been implemented now. The message of the Minister of Commerce and Industry to ask for help from the banks until the support is paid next year is not sustainable, says Myrseth.

– It is too little, too late and too passive. the government should listen to businesses, Virke and NHO, who say the tourism industry has a knife to its throat, he adds.

Myrseth believes that the government should quickly implement a payment solution, that the crisis package hits small seasonal tourism businesses, and that crisis relief will last as long as the pandemic hits the business community.

– In tourism, there are many small businesses where entrepreneurs have taken great personal risk. Now they are the ones who are paying for the crisis, he says.

– Work as fast as we can

Trade and Industry Minister Iselin Nybø says she understands very well that many are having a hard time right now.

– This affects individuals, families and our entire society. Tourism is among the worst hit industries now when we have to limit activity in society, Nybø says.

She believes that the government has given a lot of money this year to help the business community and employees, and that it takes time to implement the new scheme.

– We have made some significant changes to the schemes to compensate for the recent tightening of infection control measures. This pandemic is affecting all of Europe now, and compared to other Nordic countries, our plans are broader and more generous, Nybø says.

– I understand that it is frustrating that the new compensation plan is not already in place, but we are working as fast as we can. The scheme must be completely rebuilt in another agency, where we must have staff and training. Unfortunately, it takes time, he adds, and states that the solution will be ready in January.