Half of Britain’s fish and chip shops could close in 2024

Many take-away businesses are struggling with rising prices.

Transcript

00:00Well, since the turn of the year, things have been gradually going up, but then, you know,

00:07around about March, April, I think we had a massive, massive jump in the price of fish,

00:12oils, all your staple products. In fact, I'd go as far as to say there isn't one single

00:16item that we use in here that hasn't gone up in price. Even the drinks have just gone

00:21up. Even the paper that you wrap up with has gone up, and not small jumps. These are rather

00:27large hikes in the prices for no reason, really. I think there is an element of jumping

00:33on the bandwagon with a lot of products. You can understand some, but others, it's just

00:38a case of they're just putting them up for the sake of it because everybody else is.

00:43There's even cases of where I know warehouses and wholesalers are having the same pallet

00:50of product that's been there for months and months, but each week it goes up and up in

00:54price, and we're all struggling here. So it's about everybody helping each other, not

01:00everybody just trying to charge what they can, and that includes us.

01:04In 2024, the UK has seen a sharp increase in fish and chip shop closures, with over

01:09a thousand shutting down due to rising costs. Soaring prices for fish, oil and energy, compounded

01:16by global supply chain issues and inflation, have made it difficult for many shops to remain

01:22profitable. As a result, this year has marked a significant decline in the number of these

01:26once-thriving community staples.

01:30We can't just assume to keep putting our prices up and expecting customers to just keep coming

01:36back to us. There's a limit to this, and because I feel that I need to take a hit, as well

01:43as the customers. They're going through exactly what we're going through, and so it's not

01:48as simple as just putting your prices up. I think you're really going to suffer even

01:52more then. It's about everybody taking a hit and not putting the prices up so that they

01:57can make the same profit they made last year.