A café owner in Bury says that the rising cost of rent, bills and ingredients has forced her to close her business.

Lucy Wright, owner of Get Fresh on Brook Street, announced the café will cease trading next week following a ‘tough 12-months.’

Get Fresh, which first opened in May 2015, serves healthy choices and meal prep boxes and has operated from Unit 6 at the Albert Works for the last eight years.

Due to rising inflation, rent increases, and the cost of repairs needed at the café’s current premises, Lucy, 38, says the business is unable to carry on trading in its current form.

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She said: “I’ve looked at a couple of other units to move into, either just to have a unit where we cook, or to have a shop, and price just for the rent is so high.”

Lucy says that that not only is the cost of rent increasing unsustainably for small businesses like Get Fresh, the cost of food and packaging is also on the rise.

“Food costs just go up every single week, we have put prices up once this year but if we had to put prices up in comparison to how much our costs have gone up, it would be double, people wouldn’t pay it.”

Lucy says the impact of rising costs are two-fold as customers have less money to spend on meals out.

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She added that following the Covid-19 pandemic, people’s habits have changed, with more people working from home and buying fewer meals out.

She continued: “We’ve been quiet, we’ve had probably one of the quietest quarters even with Christmas.

“People just haven’t got as much disposable income.”

“[Business owners] that I’ve spoken to have said the same, everyone’s rents are going up, everyone’s bills are going up, we’re all in the same boat.”

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Lucy says she will now focus on the meal-prep side to her business, selling  healthy, pre-cooked meals popular with busy couples and families.

In the future, she may consider reopening the business again but for now will be looking for a space to prepare and sell pre-made meals.

“Potentially, I’d like to one day re-open,” she said. 

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