Business bosses feel the strain as energy costs soar
BUSINESS owners have spoken of the increasing pressure they are under to keep up with their bills as energy prices soar.
The energy price cap increase is expected to add an extra £700 to the average household’s annual gas and electricity bills from April 1.
Indian restaurant owner Ben Boothman says his electric bills are due to more than double.
Previously he was paying £670 a month for his electric bill but this will rise by 103 per cent.
The father-of-three, who opened his business Bombay Brew in 2019, said: “It is not just the energy bills but an accumulation of other things like the banking crisis, then Brexit, then the pandemic and now the energy crisis. “Where will this end? “Inflation is rising faster than people’s wages or benefits so there is a serious hole in people’s finances.
“These increases are hard to swallow after the two years we’ve been through.
“We are trying everything we can to not pass this to the customers.”
The Drake Street restaurant had to close due to Covid restrictions in March 2020 and re-opened on July 4, but had to close again on November 5 until June 2021.
Before the pandemic the restaurant was open six days a week all day but has since been running Thursday to Sunday. the pandemic, but now is not the right time.
“We have an energy crisis and prices are crazy. It’s a perfect storm.
“Those of us who have been working in the hospitality industry have seen pubs fall and rise again and we have seen it all.
“The hospitality trade, unless carefully monitored by the government, faces its biggest challenge ever.”
An owner of a beauty salon in Milnrow, who does not want to be identified, says for the first time she has considered selling her business she opened in 2008 to the workers in her salon.
She said: “I had a discussion with my colleagues and nothing is concrete yet but I am seriously thinking about selling my business because I cannot afford the energy bills.
“At first I thought I would be okay when prices initially went up, but then the government said they are raising them this month and then again in October, I just can’t do it.
“It is affecting me massively.”
The salon owner, pays £496 a month for gas and electric and has not received her next bill yet but
Ben Boothman, owner of Bombay Brew with Coun Janet Emsley in 2020. He is among those hit hard by the rise in energy costs anticipates it will soar to at least £700.
During the pandemic the business owner was paying £56 a month for a card machine she could not use due to her salon closing because of lockdown rules and soon had to discard it.
She was paying £386 insurance a month for an IPL hair removal machine and the company has now raised the cost to £1,100.
The entrepreneur, who singularly pays the salon bills, said: “I have a £3,000 machine stuck where the toilet is because I can’t get insurance for it.
“My liability insurance has more than doubled. I feel like it’s not worth carrying on. I have been here 14 years and have had a good healthy business but these bills mean I won’t be making a profit.
“I only put my prices up by £3 and I have already lost clients and you notice when your business is always busy.
“I own this business and I don’t have to even pay rent yet cannot afford to keep running the salon.
“What about those people who have businesses and have to pay rent? If I can’t cope with it, how are they coping?”