About the business
Love Tilly Group has built its reputation on serious food, serious wine, and a clear philosophy: creating curious, considered, uncomplicated hospitality.
Across venues like Dear Sainte Éloise, Ragazzi and Palazzo Salato, the group has grown from a small team of around 20 to more than 200 employees across 10+ locations. Along the way, the business has become known for a style of service that feels relaxed on the floor, but relies on considered precision behind the scenes.
“We’re a serious wine business and we’re a serious food business,” says Felix Auzou, Head of People at Love Tilly Group. “But there’s a casual Australian feel to it. That’s what our guests love.”
That same philosophy shapes how the group thinks about payroll, systems, and preparing for changes like Payday Super.
People and operations
Felix Auzou started as a sommelier. But his passion for people, and ensuring staff have a great experience, has seen his role evolve.
After nearly a decade with Love Tilly Group, Felix recently stepped into a broader people and operations role covering recruitment, performance, culture, employee experience — and payroll.
At the same time, the business made the decision to bring payroll in-house after previously working with an external bookkeeping firm.
“There’s a flexibility and visibility you get when it’s in-house,” Felix says. “I know a lot of the people that appear in payroll. If someone has a problem, we can just reach out directly and move forward.”
The timing meant Felix was learning payroll internally while also preparing for Payday Super.
For someone new to running payroll internally, that could have been a lot to absorb. But Love Tilly Group was already using Tanda, which made the transition far more manageable.
“It could have been quite overwhelming. But we’d already been using Tanda for some time so I was familiar with the layout of the product, and it’s also quite intuitive.”
CHALLENGES
Payroll day in a hospitality business
Payroll at Love Tilly Group doesn’t happen in isolation. It sits inside the busy reality of hospitality: changing rosters, casual shifts, public holidays, allowances, award interpretation, and a workforce that moves quickly.
The group’s most recent pay run included 213 employees, with roughly half the workforce employed casually.
Payroll Mondays are full days.
“It’s pretty much the day for me,” Felix says. “I start out by going through all the timesheets in Tanda and seeing how it accounts for things like public holiday allowances.”
Preparing early for Payday Super
Love Tilly Group had already started paying super weekly ahead of the 1 July 2026 Payday Super deadline.
At first, Felix wondered whether paying super more frequently would create cash flow pressure.
“I initially thought maybe that $30,000 might pose a cash flow issue,” he says. “But ultimately, now having seen it, it’s really just a shift in habit.”
The other concern was making sure the business was ready before the deadline arrived.
“With all change, you want to flesh it out and know exactly how it functions before the period where you’re actually going to be scrutinised on the delivery of it,” Felix says.
For a hospitality business managing more than 200 employees across multiple venues, the risk of waiting felt too high.
“I would not recommend waiting to anyone,” he says.
Tanda made the change feel smaller
Once Felix saw the Payday Super workflow inside Tanda, the change immediately felt more manageable.
“Prior to talking with Tanda, I thought it was going to be a massive change,” he says. “Now I’m like, okay, it was nothing to be too concerned about.”
Part of that confidence came from already having payroll and workforce data connected in one system before Payday Super arrived.
In practice, the setup was simple.
“It took maybe 15 minutes to get my head around it, and now it’s done.”
Instead of treating super as a separate monthly process, Love Tilly Group now closes it off alongside each weekly pay run.
“You’re going to spend the money anyway,” Felix says. “Getting it out of the way and accounting for it in the same cycle is kind of like an open and close per week.”
That shift completely changed how the business viewed Payday Super.
“In some ways, it’s better to just have it out the door,” he says.
Confidence for what's next
For Felix, the biggest impact of preparing early for Payday Super has been peace of mind.
“Cool, well, that’s done,” he says. “I don’t have to worry about it again.”
Stepping into payroll internally for the first time could have been overwhelming. Instead, Felix has been able to focus more of his time on the parts of the role he enjoys most.
“If I can simplify some of that stuff, it means I can focus on people, training and culture. This is the part of my role that I really love,” he says.
At Love Tilly Group, that focus matters. The business has grown rapidly in recent years, and the last 12 months have been spent building stronger systems and leadership foundations for the future.
“We’ve experienced a lot of growth,” Felix says. “The last year has really been about doubling down and focusing on specific areas in the business.”
That groundwork is already paying off. During a recent Melbourne takeover for Ragazzi, the venue booked out three services a day across the month.
Looking ahead, Felix sees getting ahead of Payday Super as part of building systems that can support the business as it grows — without adding unnecessary complexity behind the scenes.
Preparing early gave the team confidence that payroll could keep pace with the business, and that they were ready well before the deadline arrived.
For Felix, that confidence has made a real difference. Tanda has helped him take on payroll while still leaving space for the people, culture and training work that keeps Love Tilly Group’s hospitality sharp.
As the group continues to grow, the goal is simple: keep the experience relaxed for staff and guests, while making sure the systems underneath are ready for whatever comes next.
