Swindon’s chip shops and takeaways reducing hours and increasing prices

In recent months increasing energy bills have led to a historic cost-of-living crisis in Britain and sent inflation rates spiralling into the double digits.

Both consumers and small business owners are having to suffer the consequences of the market.

In Swindon, it means the town's favourite takeaways, especially fish and chip shops, face severe financial pressure to pass on costs to the customer or face closure.

Mohammad Saleem has owned Mr Cod in Old Town for 10 years and says this is the “worst time” he has ever seen. 

“Everything is becoming so expensive," he said.

"The warehouse continues to increase prices and we can’t keep up.” 

He explained that fish has gone up £120 per box and oil tins £25 per box. Packaging has also increased in cost and decreased in quantity.

In recent weeks, Saleem has had to lay off one of his staff because he’s struggling to pay their wages and instead opts to work more hours himself. 

“It’s very very hard," he said.

"We were hoping the new Prime Minister would do something because we can’t go on like this.”

A tough trade off that small businesses face, however, is how much they can increase prices of their food and drink before they start losing customers as the cost-of-living crisis also means that consumers now have less disposable income.

Liden Pizza & Kebab House (Image: Liden Pizza & Kebab House)

AFC Fried Chicken, owned and managed by Suman Pratheepan, has seen the cost of items like cooking oil, chicken and flour double in recent months whilst energy bills have skyrocketed.

Despite this, they continue to sell things at pretty much the same price. 

“If we put the price up by more than 50p or £1, people will stop coming to the shop,” Pratheepan explained.

To make up the difference, AFC has begun to do more online orders. 

“We have incredibly low profit margins and we’ve had to cut opening hours to lower wage costs.”

While the shop previously opened at 11am, it’s now shifted back to 1pm. 

As individual businesses find it harder to stay afloat, the entire industry is at stake.

At Liden Pizza & Kebab House, the manager explained that the price of raw materials is increasing every single week. 

“When you add up the costs of gas, electricity and rent, it’s almost not worth running a business anymore.” 

He knows that both owners and customers are just trying to get by and make a living so while they can’t raise costs because customers will complain, they are also finding it difficult to survive behind the counter.

“The government should really do something for small businesses because otherwise, they’re going to go bankrupt.”