Spiralling costs forces Mullingar cafe to close doors

Spiralling costs has forced Mullingar's Grove Cafe to close its doors for the last time this evening.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, proprietor Brendan Wallace says that a rise in the cost of doing business, coupled with a change in people's spending habits and staffing issues, left him with little option but to wind the business down.

“It's down to pure costs. Energy costs have gone up 70 per cent, some ingredients have up 100 per cent.

“Getting and keeping staff was also a problem, while people are being more frugal too. The guy who was having a coffee every morning is now having one three mornings a week.

“It was a kind of perfect storm. I hope we are the only ones, but I doubt it.”

Grove opened its door in January last year and despite the challenges of doing business during lockdown, its first 12 months went well.

However, with energy prices and other operating costs rising steadily throughout 2022 and a drop in custom as people tightened their belts, Mr Wallace says that he came to the difficult decision to close the business.

“We were doing okay but especially from February of this year, the costs just spiralled. You are talking about weekly increases [in costs]. You could have tried to trade on through, but I had no interest in that. We had to be practical about it.”

Thanking Grove's customers for their support, Mr Wallace says that he hopes that the building won't remain vacant for too long.

“It's just a sign of the times. Hopefully there won't be too many more,” he said.

When the cafe announced its closure on its Facebook page earlier this week, dozens of people left messages expressing their dismay at the news.

“Really sad to hear this news. Such a lovely cafe full of charm and staff so lovely. I’ll miss yer [sic] amazing coffee and sausage rolls,” one poster said.

“Sorry to hear this. Breakfast baps were amazing,” another said.