SHUTTING UP SHOP
Three businesses opt for closure, with low footfall, business rates and BID levy cited
Stirling city centre was dealt another blow this week after three businesses decided to shut.
Pub and eaterie Boozy Cow, in King Street, abruptly closed on Monday leaving 18 staff angry and out of work.
Cafe and restaurant the Fat Cyclist, Friars Street, shuts tomorrow (Thursday) with one of the business’s owners blaming a combination of low footfall and high business rates.
And risque lingerie firm Ann Summers is to shut its outlet in The Thistles on June 23.
The closures follow the announcement early this month that Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe, which had been trading in Port Street for eight years, is to close because of a downturn in business.
Boozy Cow staff learned on Monday morning, by telephone, that the business was to shut with immediate effect.
It was opened in September, 2016, by philanthropist Garreth Wood, son of north-east of Scotland oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood, and was part of the Speratus Group which included pubs in Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen. Profits from the business went to charity.
However, in February this year the Boozy Cow businesses were swallowed up by Edinburgh-based Signature Pubs, a conventional business run by Garreth Wood’s brother Nic, and there was no initial assurance that the pubs would continue to run on charitable lines.
Bar worker Lizzie Frederiksen, who had been employed at the Stirling pub for nine months, told the Observer: “Staff are devastated. Every single one of us loved this place. What began as a social enterprise ended as an on-the-day termination, throwing a group of people who were already on minimum-wage, zero-hour contracts into unemployment, with a week’s wage to make up for the hassle. It’s good to see what some of the richest men in Scotland really think of those earning their money.
“I don’t imagine Nic or Garreth Wood have ever been woken up at 9am by a call telling them that they’re unemployed. Or to worry about how they’re going to pay rent, or feed their children.
“I’m disgusted with the way this was handled. We all are.”
A Signature Pubs spokesperson confirmed the closure and said staff were telephoned on Monday and told of the closure and 14 took up the option of a consultation with the company’s head of operations.
They had been offered statutory redundancy pay, wages due plus holiday pay. The spokesperson said Signature currently leases the building that houses the Boozy Cow in Stirling.
“After acquiring the Boozy Cow chain from the Speratus Group in February of this year, we are looking to focus our attention on our core estate whilst further developing additional projects which were in progression prior to the acquisition,” she added.
“We are respectively evaluating every Boozy Cow unit, including their current offering, and looking forward to launching new menus and new initiatives.”
Danielle Fisher opened the Fat Cyclist with business partner Holly Toone two years ago and the decision to close will leave two staff without work.
“Until last year our business rates were £5,900 a year and now they have increased by 15 per cent and that is not sustainable for us,” said 26-yearold Danielle who now hopes to join the police. She said the Business Improvement District levy, which all businesses have to pay regardless of whether they voted for the scheme, left them with another annual bill of £279 and was the “final nail in the coffin”.
Danielle explained that the business tapped into the tourist trade in summer and relied on local trade in the winter months but added: “Last year, after the tourists went away, that was it. Footfall has gone down big time and it is sad because we are going to miss the customers.”