Stockists of Pialligo Smokehouse products aren't sure what the future will hold after the venue's sudden closure.
Pialligo Estate's Smokehouse products were stocked across over 40 stores in Canberra and Sydney, as well as a number of others in Melbourne, Queensland and Perth.
Their products were also used in cafes and restaurants all over the country.
The Smokehouse officially closed on Tuesday night, after Pialligo Estate's owner released a statement detailing new owners would be sought for the entirety of the venue.
Store manager of Ainslie IGA Dimitri Mihailakis said the stock arriving at the store noticeably slowed in the days leading up to the venue's closure.
He said the store received no official communication from Pialligo Estate in the lead up or after it closed its doors.
"Coming up to the initial announcement of the temporary closure, we did notice there were limited numbers of stock coming in, and sometimes we didn't receive deliveries at all," he said.
"So, in a way, [the closure] wasn't completely a surprise to us."
Ainslie IGA stocked Pialligo's bacon, ready made meals, almost all of the pork products the Smokehouse offered, and their Christmas ham in December.
Mr Mihailakis said people did regularly come into the store for the Pialligo products specifically.
"But we aren't worried from a business perspective without the stock. They have all been pretty easy to replace with the other stock we have here," he said.
Owner of Barton Grocer Domenic Costanzo said they stocked "almost everything available" from the Smokehouse.
Mr Costanzo said the first he heard of the closure was on Instagram on the day it was officially announced, and has still received no official communication from Pialligo since.
But he said his feelings are mostly of sadness for a venue the business considered to be an "institution".
"It's a shame really, they are all really amazing products, so hearing that they are closing is really sad," he said.
"The Smokehouse products that we stocked definitely drove a lot of customers through the doors, they were products that people would come into the store specifically to buy."
Pialligo's financial issues may have shown themselves to stockists months before the news about the financial struggles behind their closure were made public.
A member of staff at Doubleshot Deakin, who used to use the Smokehouse's bacon, said they switched to an alternative product as prices kept going up.
Owner of Thirty8 Espresso in Kingston Ryan Jennings also said the hiked prices stopped his business from relying on Pialligo's products, but there was no doubting their quality.
He said Thirty8 Espresso was one of the first places in Canberra to use their bacon when the cafe initially opened.
"We had a long relationship with them, but after we did renovations and changed the menu up, we looked elsewhere, influenced by their increased prices," he said.
"We still used some products like their chorizo sausages for bits and pieces, and I still loved to purchase them for personal Christmas presents for my family.
"I personally still really liked the products."
The Smokehouse had its fair share of struggles during the time it was open, after being impacted by COVID lockdowns and bushfire smoke.
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