Milano Cafe in Scarisbrick near Southport has closed due to rising energy costs

The Milano Cafe on the A570 Southport to Ormskirk Road has closed its doors due to rising energy and food costs.

Milano's owner posted on Facebook...

“We weren’t in a town centre - you’d have to drive to us as a destination location, so when I looked at it, I thought, I’d go back to what I was doing before in retail.” Around ‘six or seven’ other businesses in Southport were in the same boat, he added, due to leases needing to be renewed, adding: “I’ve heard since from a supplier that probably six or seven others are coming up to the end, and they’re just not going to bother, in Southport alone.”

Skyrocketing energy bills had also been a factor, and the ‘numbers would not work,’ he said - but staff had got new jobs as he forewarned them well in advance.

 He added: “My electricity bill went up to £3,000 a month in just a month, so I’d have to take another £80,000 in the next year to just cover the increase, which was never going to happen, so we made the decision to go out on top when everybody remembers you as being good, rather than trade for another two years and have to cut back on quality and service because you’ve got less staff.”

The cost of food supplies had also shot up by 40% he said, adding: "We could only really pass 10% of that increase on, so you’d lose 30% on every dish, really. The numbers were telling me that it wouldn’t work, and we’d had 12 great years, so it was time to walk away and say goodbye while we were on a high.