A cafe owner has claimed that "absolutely astronomical" energy bills and a rise in business rates are the reason behind his decision to close his business for a second time after almost a decade on the same street. Jonathan Thomas first started trading on Yarm high street almost 10 years ago.
Having run popular phone shop JTMobiles for more than eight years, Jonathan rebranded his store as Coffee & Treats after a similar store opened nearby that he "couldn't compete with". He told Teesside Live: "I decided to do something different and that was the next best thing that I thought of.
"I went out and rented expensive equipment, we were doing really nice coffees. Every review that we've got is fantastic and we were getting there."
However, Jonathan says that despite not taking a wage from the business for the past six months, the time has come to call it a day. The 56-year-old said that the business was starting to cost "an absolute fortune" to run.
The businessman says that energy bills are "absolutely astronomical". He claims they have soared from "£400 a month to nearly £1,200 a month within the space of two weeks".
Jonathan says: "I've put so much money in there and I've had no wages out of there for nearly six months. It comes to a point where you have got to go 'right, that's enough'.
"I've been on the High Street for about nine and a half years in total. We've been closed for two months now, and have been sorting stuff with the landlord and what's left in the shop to get rid of."
Alongside his sky-high energy bills, Jonathan says that his business rates are "killing" him. He explained: "Every month I was putting more and more money in rather than less and less, which you'd expect to do over time. It just came to a point."
He says that after announcing his decision to close, some customers had offered to help keep the business afloat. He said: "It does take a long time to build up a new business but within five or six months we had really good footfall - but it was just getting so expensive.
"I've had lots of people on Facebook messaging me saying that it was so sad to see me go," Jonathan said. He added that he is unsure what's next for his High Street premises, but that he currently has no plans to go back into retail again.
Earlier in the year, JTMobiles closed. At the time, the store said it was with "a sad and heavy heart" that it had closed its doors for the final time, and thanked both customers and friends for their support over eight "fun-filled years".
In a statement posted on the Yarm -The Town Facebook page at the time, the owners said they had "financially come to an end".
