Cindy Atay left a note on door blaming places that dish out 'fast food, frozen food, and ready prepped meals'
Mediterranean restaurant, Upper Mostyn Street, Llandudno. Closing for the winter
The owners of a restaurant and cafe in Llandudno say they have been forced to close for winter due to the town being “saturated” with cafes and fast food places.
Cindy and Ibrahim Atay have successfully run the Mediterranean restaurant for 24 years and the next door Salt and Pepper cafe for three years.
But they have closed up until next February with the initial sign on the door at Salt & Pepper blaming the opening of too many eating places dishing out “fast food, frozen food, and ready prepped meals”.
The sign added that a number of eating places have already gone bankrupt because of these places and they did not want to join them.
They said that for a business that makes everything fresh it is getting hard to compete outside of the main tourism season.
This was first time they had actually chosen to close for winter with the only previous occasion due to a serious illness.
Speaking to the Daily Post, Cindy said: “We had to make this hard decision because we can’t keep paying staff through winter when we can’t get enough people in to pay their wages.
“In the past we could last the winter but so many places have been allowed to open in the town in recent years that the market is saturated.
“There are now far too many eating places in Llandudno for a town of this size.
“It is okay in the summer when there are lots of tourists around but not this time of year.
“People want to try all these new places so this means less people to come here and because we prep everything from fresh it can mean a lot of food waste if we don’t get as many customers as we expect.
"A lot of these places use frozen food that is ready prepped so there is not the same waste.”
Cindy says that Trip Advisor now shows more than 140 eating places in the Llandudno area, compared to around 70 three years ago.
The sign at Salt & Pepper
She added: “We are not happy with the council for allowing so many eating places to open in the town, it will just put other people out of business.
“This town is at saturation point, there are only so many eating places a town needs.”
She added: “We are disappointed for the staff but if we don’t take this hard decision then we could be the next ones going bust, which would be no good for anyone.
“We had to close the previous winter due to Ibrahim being ill but this time we just decided it was best for the business.”
Conwy council have been asked to comment.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/business/business-news/llandudno-fast-food-saturation-point-12180656
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