Former staff at a Nottingham restaurant have described their "complete shock" at arriving there to start work to find it boarded and chained up. COSMO, a national chain which offers customers an all-you-can eat buffet of food from around the world, recently announced that it was closing its Nottingham branch after seven years of service in the city.
Jinfeng Wang, 40, who had been an administrative worker at the restaurant for five years, was expecting a normal day at work when he arrived at COSMO's Milton Street branch on Tuesday (November 1). But when reaching the site at around 9am, he found the restaurant boarded up.
Mr Wang said: "I had worked on the Monday and everything was completely as normal. I arrived at work on the Tuesday morning and found that the restaurant was boarded up and chains had been put on the inside of the door around the back.
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"I had no idea what was happening and so I messaged my manager and he had no idea either. He said that there was no point in waiting around and that I should go home.
"It was later that day that I saw the news online that the closure would be a permanent one. I assumed that the restaurant would be open again in a few days because a temporary closure has happened in the past.
"But this time the landlord said they were not aware of any issues at all and so I was in complete shock. There were 58 staff at the restaurant and this has obviously come at a time when Christmas is not far away so it's very stressful for everyone."
A former back-of-house chef at the restaurant, who did not want to be named, said he was "very disappointed" after three years of working at COSMO's Nottingham branch. He said: "It is really surprising because it was always such a busy restaurant and it was actually one of the busiest in the entire COSMO group of restaurants.
"It's obviously really sad for everyone because this is people's livelihoods. I myself have a one-year-old to look after and I'm now looking for another job but it's a challenging time with Christmas on the way.
"I was very upset at first but I have to be strong because I'm trying to help all of the other staff through this as well. The nature of the restaurant means a lot of the staff are international and some of them still don't know what is happening, one of them even messaged me the other day asking when we were re-opening."
Nottingham's restaurant was one of 21 outlets operated by the COSMO group, with the city's branch being operated under an agreement with Iris Trading Limited. A COSMO spokesman said: "COSMO is extremely sorry that staff from the Nottingham restaurant have been left in this situation.
"Although COSMO is a national brand, the restaurant was operated by a company called Iris Trading Ltd and its operations are beyond our control. The business relationship between COSMO and Iris Trading had become unsustainable and COSMO had no other option but to terminate the contract with them. Staff can be reassured that we are chasing Iris Trading to action their responsibilities."
Announcing the closure, COSMO said: "We were delighted with the way Nottingham embraced our world dining concept and have had many happy years serving the people of this city. We are hugely grateful to the very many loyal customers who made COSMO Nottingham such a success and apologise for any inconvenience for anyone who was looking forward to a forthcoming visit."
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