‘NON-existent margins’ have resulted in the closure of the popular Bantry restaurant West.
‘Margins are always tight in our industry but they are non-existent today,’ Chris Heinhold told The Southern Star.
‘The hospitality business is in our blood but it’s a very different business today. With supplier prices changing constantly it is incredibly difficult to keep producing a high-quality product at a reasonable price,’ said the former councillor.
Shocks, such as the recent cold weather also take an enormous toll, according to Chris, who confirmed that the restaurant at High Street will close its doors for the last time on Tuesday January 28th.
Chris said he and his partner, Bantry woman Emer Kelly, closed their city premises as a result of the first Covid lockdown but focused their attention on keeping the Bantry business viable.
‘Years of ducking and diving, changing our menus and becoming a shop and off-licence, a garden bar, takeaway, whatever we needed to be, took its toll,’ he added.
‘Unfortunately, we have been carrying the fallout from all of that, keeping the business running while dealing with the legacy debt and the energy crisis, but we’ve come to a point where it can’t continue.’
Chris – who served as a co-opted Social Democrat councillor but missed out on a seat last June – is now employed as an administrative assistant for the party leader Holly Cairns.
For about a year, Chris said he hadn’t drawn an income from the business but was, instead, pumping money back in, in the hope of keeping it going.
But with three young children, he said he can no longer continue to do that, and it’s time to call it a day.
‘I’ve known it was coming for a while, but it was still a difficult decision to make,’ he added.
Even with talks of the new government reintroducing the 9% vat rate, the restaurateur said: ‘I don’t even know if that would have been enough to save the business. It’s 1,000 things. There’s no one way that the difficulties in the industry can be fixed.’
Chris, along with the owner of the Kabin cafés in Ballinhassig and Ballincollig – which are also to close on Sunday January 19th and Sunday January 26th – thanked his loyal customers and staff who did everything they could to provide a fantastic customer experience all day, every day.
‘The unforeseen rising cost of doing business has made it impossible for both premises to operate successfully,’ the Kabin owners said, adding that they would continue to operate their Ballinhassig-based catering business.
