In its 45-year history, Armitage Auctions has never faced the challenges it has seen in the past few months.
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In April the business moved its auctions online in response to COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing measures.
Auctioneer and director Neil O'Brien said they also had to let go some part-time staff, with remaining employees now only working four days a week.
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Mr O'Brien said it had been a tough, but necessary decision to make, with work slowing down considerably.
"We did let go some of our part-time staff. We have kept all of our full-time staff on, but we are all only doing a four days week," he said.
"With the current circumstance, we've been told by our accountants and also by the government department - unless you can actually have your staff come in and do work, that you can't have them on this JobKeeper.
"You can't just have people sitting at home earning money for doing nothing. Unfortunately, there is just not enough for us to do. As soon as we get back running to normal ... we will of course be looking to put them back on again."
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Despite setbacks, Mr O'Brien said he remained optimistic about the businesses future.
A number of "particularly interesting" items are already slated for its next online auction on May 19 - including a whale harpoon.
"The online platform has been going really well," he said.
"Obviously, we haven't seen anything like this before, but the second auction we had, we had better outcomes than the first.
"Moving forward, I think it [online] might still be a part of it. But we have to still keep our reputation up ... we still enjoy our live auctions and I think a lot of our regular customers do.
"There are certain things people still need to be able to see in the flesh and be able to come in and physically view and examiner it thoroughly.
"So we will definitely go back to regular auctions when we can."
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