00:00Recent headlines show a number of large takeaway businesses are suffering
00:04with reduced numbers of orders, lower revenue, stifled growth plans and even outlet closures.
00:09I wanted to find out how smaller businesses are doing in this environment.
00:12So I spoke to Andrew Crook, President of the National Federation of Fish Fryers,
00:16to see what the story is for all of our local takeaways.
00:19I think we're seeing less footfall. Obviously prices have increased. I mean,
00:23we're still great value fishing ships, but it has gone up. We've seen increase in all our costs,
00:28so obviously some of that's been passed on to the customer. So we are seeing people come in a
00:33little less frequently. We've got a lot more competition now. You've got garage forecourts
00:36that all do food and supermarkets that they have hot food ready or even just the ready meals.
00:43Very easy to cook and very quick to cook, isn't it? And they can be cheaper. There's no VAT on those.
00:48So yeah, some lunch times are very busy. There's no pattern. So we can have a random busy Tuesday,
00:55and then all of a sudden the next day we don't cover the cost of the wages.
00:59Companies are having to deal with rising wages and higher employer national insurance contributions.
01:05When it comes to your industry specifically, how significant are these sort of costs for the operators?
01:10Yeah, the smaller businesses were somewhat protected, although I did try and open my original shop,
01:16which I rented out for 20 years. I reopened in September last year and I closed it at Christmas.
01:20And that was partly because of national insurance, because I was going to have too
01:24many staff that would be in the pot and it just wouldn't be viable. My treasurer talking to her
01:30about the effect of it. It cost her business. They've got quite a sizable fish and chip business.
01:33It's one of the biggest in the country. It costs half a million pounds a year extra with the
01:38increasing wages and national insurance. So that's a shop refit that they're not doing. So that's
01:42workmen that aren't going to be employed. That's equipment that's not going to be bought.
01:45In terms of both the government and local authorities, let's say, however much they
01:49might be able to do, what things do you think would be good to see and what would you like to see?
01:55I think government seems to think that maybe business rate reform is going to be the panacea
02:00that will solve all the problems for hospitality. It only affects about 50% of my members. Smaller
02:05businesses have got small business rate relief, including my own business. So business rates don't really
02:10factor. The one thing that government can look at, which a lot of other European countries have done,
02:15is reducing the rate of VAT for hospitality. We're here to do the work. We are working people. We're
02:20used to rolling our sleeves up and we just need that help from government. We need a brave chancellor
02:24to reduce VAT for hospitality and that will kickstart this country.
Comments