Open Frydays – but it closes another day to cut costs
A TAKEAWAY owner has revealed the extent of the impact the price of living crisis has had on his business.
Paul De’Brett from Southport has spent the majority of his adult life in hospitality and decided to take the plunge of owning his own business in August 2020.
The dad-of-two opened Frydays on Eastbourne Road to serve high standard takeaway food.
Despite opening during, and surviving, a pandemic, the 33-yearold has now had to make changes to accommodate for the sharp increase in prices of both products and utilities.
Paul said, like all people in the UK, he is coming to terms with the jump in the cost of living.
He has announced that his business will now shut on Wednesdays and will have to introduce price increases.
The business owner has even made an admission about the harsh reality of opening at the present time.
He said: “Everyone knows what’s going on and it’s just about communicating to people. If I communicate with people they have no problem with it.
“With the rising prices of energy and things like that I have no control over that and it is a struggle for us. It would be cheaper for me to close on a Wednesday than if I were to open.
“It would have cost me almost £500 to open on Wednesday so we’ve decided to close an extra day to try and control some of the costs.
“For example the oil, I pay £270 for oil to change the fryers twice a week. People aren’t spending as much so you can’t stay open every day of the week.”
Paul initially took to Facebook to share the news that he would be opening five days a week going forward.
He posted: “We have made a difficult decision to close Wednesdays with immediate effect with rising costs, and product prices on the up.
“It’s difficult times at the moment for everyone, we have increased prices slightly to cover costs. We are trying to stay reasonable as possible, we thank all our loyal customers for supporting us.
“But we have said it before, all independent businesses need support through these rough times ahead.”
THREE people threatened at knife-point managed to force the robbers to flee after grabbing the weapon from them.
Police are appealing for information following knifepoint robbery on West Street in Southport on Monday, May 2.
Officers from Merseyside Police were called after reports of a robbery at around 10.30pm.
Two males and a female were walking down the street when they were approached by two male suspects who produced a knife and demanded the victims’ mobile phones.
But one victim managed to grab the knife from one of the suspects forcing the thugs to run from the scene on foot.
One of the victims attended hospital for an injury to his hand, which was sustained during the altercation. There is no suggestion that the knife was used.
It was reported that one of the male victims had his coat and bank cards stolen during the incident.
CCTV, forensic and witness enquiries into the incident are ongoing and anyone with any information is asked to contact police.
Detective Inspector
Sam Davies said: “We simply will not stand by and allow people to carry knives and threaten the safety of themselves and others.
‘‘This was a shocking incident and we’re determined to identify who was involved and remove them and their weapon from the streets.’’
DI Davies added: “We rely on members of the public coming forward with information about such incidents to keep our streets safer.
“If you were in the Southport area yesterday evening and saw anything or anyone suspicious then please come forward.
Similarly, if you were driving in the area and have dashcam footage then please review it and if you see anything, including a grey scooter being driven in the area, please let us know.
“Tell us what you know about this incident and we’ll take positive action to remove those who use weapons to cause fear and harm in our communities from our streets.”
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact Merseyside Police social media desk via Twitter @MerpolCC or Facebook Merseyside Police Contact Centre with reference 22000301022.
You can also call 101 or contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously, on 0800
555 111 or via their online form at: https:// crimestoppers-uk.org/ give-information/ give-information.