'My dream of owning a restaurant is slipping away'

A Devon restaurant owner said he had to make the difficult decision to close his business for the next two months to try to save it after a tough summer.

MasterChef semi-finalist Jamie Rogers opened Twenty Seven in Kingsbridge in 2018 and said the business had gone really well for the first six years.

But he said successful summers had always subsidised the winter months and this year business dropped in March and had not recovered.

"It's really sad," he said. "[But] if it doesn't add up, it doesn't add up, so I'd rather protect the business - that's what I feel like we're doing."

"The last few months have been difficult because this was my dream from a kid," Mr Rogers said.

"To just watch it almost slip away is mad, that's why I've tried to close.

"Logistically the reason I'm doing that is because it will limit the damage that's going to happen over the next few months.

"People think it's a crazy idea and who knows? It could be."

Mr Rogers said he was hoping the move would save money on wages, VAT, alcohol, food and utilities.

He said without a temporary closure "we could lose the business entirely".

Mr Rogers said he was hoping to be busy over the festive season and then reassess what to do about January and February.

Tourism bosses previously said South West tourism businesses including hospitality were experiencing a "challenging" year due to cost of living pressures, the cryptosporidium outbreak in a part of south Devon and poor weather.

Sally Everton, director of Visit Devon, said "serious declines" in tourist numbers had been "devastating for a lot of our businesses".

For Lewis Bennett, it has been a year of ups and downs.

After launching his business Creeping Thyme in Bovey Tracey in 2021, he moved to larger premises at Seale-Hayne near Newton Abbot in March.

"I decided to make the leap, go a bit bigger, bigger kitchen, more staff, better area and just try something new," he said, adding it had not been easy and the weather had not helped.

He said: "Hospitality in general is really struggling... people can't afford as much and we're a luxury at the end of the day... we go month by month at the minute but hopefully we keep going, we have just had our busiest weekend."

Both Mr Bennett and Mr Rogers said they hoped the Budget on 30 October would bring good news, and in particular that business rates relief would be extended.

Carmen Hanif, from the Federation of Small Businesses in Devon, said hospitality businesses needed help now.

"If that [business rates relief] goes, that's another reason for businesses to worry," she said.

"As well as that there are staff issues, ever-increasing cost burdens... [the government] need to throw everything at supporting these businesses, things like rate relief, the VAT.

"All of these things that government can do, they need to implement now."

A government spokesperson said: "We're supporting businesses, including hospitality, through pledges to cap corporation tax at 25%, make the business rates system fairer, and to publish a business tax roadmap so that future investments can be planned with confidence."

Business owners like Mr Rogers and Mr Bennett can only wait to see what the Budget might offer and look ahead to and prepare for what they hope will be a bumper festive season.

"People will always have to eat," said Mr Rogers.

"We'll be back, I'm going to reset, readjust, retweak everything... and we'll just go again."

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