Restaurant owner in Bridgend faces closure as energy bills skyrocket to £8,000 a month

Franco has been in the hospitality industry for almost 30 years.

A restaurant owner has said he will be forced to close the business as his energy bills have hit £8,000 a month.

Franco Scuto, who runs Franco's Ristorante Vecchio Italian Restaurant in Bridgend, has been in the hospitality industry for almost 30 years but said the cost of living crisis may force him to close shortly after Christmas.

The 51-year-old explained his electricity bill had increased to £5,549.84 a month, with his gas bill now hitting £2,104.26.

The rising cost of food has added to the problem, with a case of peeled tomatoes increasing from £11.95 a unit to £41.20 in six months and cooking oil going up by £17 in the same period to £36.99.

Franco said in order to help keep the business open, he would have to push the cost onto the consumer and increase his menu prices.

"I have to put £4 extra on a starter and then I have to put an £8 extra on a main course. That's just to survive," he said.

He added: "I don't even know if I can open tomorrow. Have a look at my bills and they expect me to put the price up at the restaurant for the lasagna to £20 or a caprese salad for £10.

"How will you expect me to do that to my clients? I can never do that."

The restaurant's energy bills have hit £8,000 a month with electricity making up the majority.

Franco, who works 16-hour days and has been forced to come in on his days off, said he expected to lose customers with a meal out for a family of four potentially costing no less than £200 soon.

He said: "Nobody can afford it. Everything has gone triple, everything. There's no way out if the government does nothing about it.

"They don't want any more small businesses because we cause too many problems for them. They want big franchises - no problem for them. Just tell us 'Look, we can't help you'. Just be honest. Be honest. have the guts to tell us 'We can't help you'. So at least we know.

"Honestly, I don't really know what is going to happen tomorrow. We just live day by day because at the end of the day, next month in October if I'm going to have another £8,000-9,000 to pay, where am I going to get this money from?"

Franco has four full-time members of staff who he says he will not consider paying less.

He explained: "I can't say to my chef 'tomorrow I'm going to give you half of the wages because the electric bill is going up'. It is a really bad situation."

After the restaurant owner posted a video on Facebook, which has since been shared over 24,000 times, people sent messages of support and well wishes.

One user wrote: "Shared. This is so appalling, Franco, you are so hard working. Always great food and wonderful service."

Another said: "Franco, this is devastating. You have a wonderful restaurant in every respect, and your message is absolutely heartbreaking. I do hope you survive - Bridgend would be a much sadder place without you."

In the last few months, Cardiff has seen a large number of independent restaurants being forced to close their doors because of rising energy costs and the VAT returning to 20%.

Franco said: "I think it is gonna get worse before it's gonna get better, honestly."

The UK Government's Energy Bill Relief Scheme offers support to businesses and other non-domestic customers in Wales for help this winter. The automatic discounts will be applied to energy usage initially between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.

The scheme outlined: "The government will provide a discount on your gas and electricity unit prices. To calculate your discount, the estimated wholesale portion of the unit price you would be paying this winter will be compared to a baseline ‘government supported price’ which is lower than currently expected wholesale prices this winter.

"For all non-domestic energy users in Great Britain this government supported price has been set at £211 per megawatt hour (MWh) for electricity and £75 per MWh for gas."