A Derry business has said "he has never" seen food inflation as high during his time owning businesses across Northern Ireland.
Paul McCole, who owns the Sandwich Company, told MyDerry there wasn't one product that his business bought that hasn't gone up in price due to inflation.
It comes as the Office for National Statistics revealed that food and non-alcoholic beverages are estimated to be at their highest since 1980.
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"This started at the beginning of the year and the rising costs have been constant for every product that we get," Paul said.
"There isn't a product that we buy that hasn't gone up in price. The people are talking about prices in supermarkets going up 10pc and 20pc in some places. That's nothing in comparison to ourselves, we have seen rises as far as 6opc and 70pm, compared to this time last year.
"I have more products coming in next week and we've been told that they will be rising during the first week of November by a further 20pc. All we are getting are present is increases on top of increases.
"It's demoralising because month after month it never seems to end and then you have your utility bills on top of that.
"We've seen our electricity double in all of our outlets. We have seven outlets across the North West, north and south, and every one of them is suffering."
Paul says one of his premises before the drastic rises was averaging around £2,600 per quarter. That has seen a severe rise to £5,200 per quarter.
"That's only one outlet," he added.
"This is happening right across the board for us. There's no answers to it and there's no support for business people at the minute and that's why a lot of them are struggling.
"We had to increase our product again but we can only charge so much for a sandwich. We've already increased our prices twice this year and we're probably going to have to rise them again.
"We recently opened an outlet in Belfast and very quickly we took the decision to close it in July of this year because it wasn't sustainable.
"If we had kept it open then it would've had a huge determinant in all parts of the business. Things are just not looking very positive right now.
"Footfall is down because people haven't the money to spend like they once had and that's been the case since the pandemic. It just blow after blow at the minute and we just have to see what this uncertain future brings."
The well-established businessmans' concerns come as the Derry City Chamber of Commerce (DCCC) said rising costs and inflationary pressures are the biggest challenges businesses face currently in the crisis.
In a recent survey, DCCC said businesses have been negatively affected by the lack of a functioning Executive and Northern Ireland Assembly.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland is now on course for its second election of the year after politicians missed the deadline set by Westminster for restoring devolved government on Thursday, October 27.
Aidan O’Kane, President of the Derry Chamber of Commerce said: “Our findings also highlight clearly and unambiguously that there simply must be more done to support businesses in the wake of these pressures.
"Our members have listed the types of interventions that would relieve pressure at this time, be it rates reductions, help with energy bills, or direct financial support to help with materials and products.
“There’s simply no getting away from the fact that the lack of an Executive is worsening the situation for our local businesses and this should serve as a wake-up call for our local elected representatives."
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