A businessman who opened a popular axe-throwing venue and barbecue restaurant just five months before lockdown has told how covid and the cost-of-living crisis have forced him to take the 'heart-breaking' decision to close down. Simon Atherton launched Real Axe in Bolton in October 2019.
He spent eight months and £150,000 kitting out the 8,000 sq ft building at Dunscar Business Park, doing a large part of the work himself. But, just five months after opening, the UK was put in lockdown.
READ MORE:
"The timing is the thing that killed us.," Simon said. "We were just gathering momentum and then we were closed down and it was just takeaway only."
Simon, who previously ran a successful IT company, said during covid the axe throwing business lost around £250,000. It was a blow from which it couldn't recover.
He added: "We were a new business, so we hadn't built up any cash reserves. The bounce-back loans and grants from the council helped but they didn't scratch the surface really, so we came out of covid with a lot of debt.
"Then Putin invaded Ukraine and the price of everything went up. The throwing boards we used went from £5 to £11, a rack of ribs went from £5 to £8, and as a hospitality business you can't pass all that on to the customer because they just won't pay it.
"The really infuriating thing is in 2022, our first real year of trading, we turned over about £1.2m, which is phenomenal. If we didn't have the covid debt dragging us, it would be a profitable business.
"It's heart-breaking. Mentally and physically it's really kicked me about a bit. I consider myself to be a bit of a tough cookie, but this has affected me quite dramatically."
The venue, which also hosted a monthly comedy night run by Frog and Bucket, closed its doors for the final time on Monday. A statement on the company's website said: "It's with an extremely heavy heart I must announce that Real Axe has to close as of Monday January 9. The luck and timing couldn’t have been any worse - opening in October 2019 followed by Covid closures and everything else that followed.
"With only one real year of uninterrupted trading Real Axe hugely outperformed our expectations and forecast but it just wasn’t enough to trade through the covid debt.
"The last three years have been a real struggle and unfortunately, we have been forced to close. I’m so sorry if the closure affects you in any way – this was never intentional.
"It's extremely important to us for all to understand, we have put everything into this great project and its heart breaking to close what has brought so much joy to so many. One of the administrator's tasks will be trying sell Real Axe as a package so maybe there is a glimmer of hope."
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
"I'm poor. I do nothing. I drive a s*** car": The café owners whose dreams have become a nightmare
People claming PIP must contact government to report any of these changes
Council tax in Manchester to increase by at least £50 under new proposals
Greater Manchester cheapest petrol and diesel prices as UK average cost of unleaded drops to 1.50p
