Half of our fish and chip shops may face extinction if the government goes ahead with its controversial tax rise, an expert has warned. Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, is ringing alarm bells now in the hope that the government will listen to his pleas.
He wants the Treasury to stop its plan to hike VAT by 7.5%, because “it is going to put a lot of businesses under”. It is feared some chippies may stop selling fish altogether and pivot to other foods such as burgers and kebabs.
Mr Crook estimates 3,000 chippies could be forced to close by 2027. Mr Crook who also owns Skippers of Euxton in Lancashire, said customers pay £5.60 for a cod that costs him £4.
As reported in The Mirror, Mr Crooks expanded on the price hike, saying an 18kg case of cod cost £150 before the pandemic, whereas now it has shot up to £230. “I won’t be making money now,” he said.
“It’s going to be very difficult to pull through this. We work on a very tight margin in fish and chips and after the pandemic, prices started going through the roof.
“This was before we feel the effects from Ukraine. A large cod and chips is going to go to around £12 or £13.”
Some 40% of imported fish is from Russia, which is now sanctioned, Mr Crook added. And 50% of sunflower oil used by chippies is from Ukraine.
He added: "Palm oil used to be £13 a box, we’re now up to £23 a pot and that’s before we run out of sunflower oil. That will disappear because it’s from Ukraine.”
Mr Crook wants the Treasury to scrap its plan to increase VAT by 7.5% because of its potential to put even more pressure on businesses. The sales tax, now at 12.5%, returns to its pre-pandemic rate of 20% next month.
He added: “A lot of shops are at the lower end of the industry – husband and wife teams, it’s getting more and more difficult for them to run a business. We’ll see a lot of those go quite quickly. ”
David Hanbury, who owns a chippie in Torquay, Devon, said the situation was “a perfect storm of economic disaster”. He could soon be charging £10.60 for cod and chips, he said.
Mr Hanbury, who has worked in the industry for 40 years, said he had never before known a year with all prices going up at once. He added: “We’re going to put our prices up in a customer base that’s also feeling the pinch.
"I’ve never known such a disastrous set of circumstances.”
