Sydney permanently closed

In March 2020 Jönköping Student Union decided to close their café Sydney due to the covid-19 outbreak.

The customers were students and staff but due to the covid outbreak, they were not at campus during the spring semester of 2020. Therefore, it was not financially sustainable to keep the café open. As large parts of education have remained on distance until the autumn of 2021, it would have been financially irresponsible to open Sydney during this time.

However, during this period, we have had the opportunity to evaluate Sydney's operation. During all the time we have been operating in Sydney, it has been difficult to break even from an economic perspective and the result at each year has included large financial losses. This is something that the Board believe cannot continue.

When the Board evaluated the situation in November 2021, the conclusion was that even if the operations in Sydney are decreased and thus would ensure that the potential financial losses couldn´t be as large, there is still an imminent risk that Sydney will continue to make a loss. The Board do firmly believe that the membership fee shall not cover losses in the Service Operations and that despite the fact that Sydney has great potential and value from a student social perspective, it is not enough when the financial aspects are highly uncertain.

The café venue is rented out by JU and they have started to look for a new organisation that is interested and capable of running a café/restaurant in the same venue. As of today, the union does not have any information as to when a new café might open.