As the closure of high-profile restaurants make the news, here on the Isle of Wight the hospitality sector is not untouched.
This week, after six years on Cowes High Street, Gastronomy closed its doors due to personal issues and increased business pressures.
Fahey: Increased pressures are not navigable
Tom Fahey, from the award-winning Terrace in Yarmouth and Terrace Rooms and Wine in Ventnor, has been campaigning for sometime to gain Government support for the hospitality sector. He says he’s been lobbying Isle of Wight MP, Bob Seely, adding that VAT parity with Europe is desperately needed.
Explaining the pressures hospitality businesses are under, Tom said,
“The issues are mostly external. Labour availability, increased labour costs, no ability to claim VAT on inputs, lower consumer wealth, insane energy costs, Covid debt, higher food prices.
“For 90 per cent of low margin businesses these increased pressures are not navigable.”
Unless support is forthcoming, he believes many more Isle of Wight restaurant owners will have to make the difficult decision to close this year.
Fahey: Exponential impact on small businesses
Tom added,
“The main point is, traditional measures of success like ‘increase custom = increased profit’ do not apply. It is far more complex and nuanced just to survive.
“The Terrace kept its head above water by decreasing available covers and staffing by a third. We will have to cut again this year.
“And I should add, increased wine duty costs and complicity to those issues. The impact of duty increases on small business already struggling to control prices was exponential.”
