A greengrocer has been forced to ditch his retirement plans in order to keep his business afloat as energy prices soar. Andy Rafter and his wife Tracy have owned fruit and veg shop Rafters in Hull for 25 years.
However, with no price cap on business energy bills, the 59-year-old says that the rise in electricity prices is going to cause 'carnage'. The businessman has been with his current supplier for over a decade, with the energy company quoting him a new monthly charge of £7,500 when his contract ends in March - a whopping £6,580 increase per month on what he currently pays.
As reported by Hull Live, Andy said: "We have been with our current supplier for 12 years. The best alternative quote we found was £5,599 per month and that has now been withdrawn.
"We are not looking for sympathy because we will try and deal with it the best way we can but this is going to cause carnage. We are already hearing of small businesses like us throwing in the towel and who can blame them."
Mr Rafter said he thought the Covid-19 pandemic had been the ultimate challenge to his business, which currently employs 30 people. Now he's having to think again as the cost of living crisis really begins to bite.
"We managed to trade right through Covid, working seven days a week, 12 hours a day. We closed the shop for the first six months and transferred everything online to develop the home delivery service. We were classed as an essential business so we never stopped.
"What we learned from the pandemic was how important the delivery service was to such a lot of people. In the early days, the big supermarkets had a 19-day time slot for deliveries in this part of the world whereas we were offering a one of two-day delivery date as a maximum.
"We are still doing a lot of those same deliveries today. We deliver within a 30-mile radius so we take in everywhere from Withernsea to Beverley and across to Market Weighton. A lot of people living in isolated communities rely on us to be there."
After posting his new electricity quote on social media, he said he had been inundated with messages of support. He added: "I'm very grateful to everyone who has contacted us saying very nice things but, sadly, it won't pay the bills. I've also had no fewer than 11 brokers get in touch but not one of them has been able to get close to coming up with an affordable price and that's quite terrifying.
"We have already started trying to think our way through this by looking at what changes we can make to the way the business operates to make it viable. We are in the process of reviewing all our chilled product units to see whether we need them or not.
"We might look like a traditional high street fruit and veg shop from the front but we also have a large cold storage area at the back of the premises which we use to store products that we supply to the local catering trade, again within a 30-mile radius of Driffield. If we are going to get through this, a lot of those chillers are going to have to go.
"I knew the situation with energy bills was gradually getting worse but I probably did not anticipate how they were going to shoot up like this. I suspect no one really did.
"I am 60 this year but I'm afraid that if I had any intention of retiring anytime soon, that's all gone now. Instead, I'm probably going to have to start dipping into my personal savings to help keep the business going.
"We have had plenty of challenges in our 25 years of trading and there is no doubt that this is the biggest but we are ready to meet it full on. We are all in it together."
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