The owner of a Welsh restaurant has set out in detail the stifling reality of rising costs in the hospitality industry which he says may force him to close shortly after Christmas. Franco Scuto, 51, who runs Franco's Ristorante Vecchio Italian Restaurant in Bridgend and has been in the industry for almost 30 years, says things are getting more and more critical every day for restaurants as costs soar but no government help is forthcoming.
Franco shows how his electricity bill has shot up to £5,549.84 a month, with his gas bill also increasing to £2,104.26. And it's not just energy prices that have sky-rocketed: a case of peeled tomatoes has gone from £11.95 a unit to a whopping £41.20 in six months while cooking oil has increased to £36.99 from £19.99 in the same time period. He says that in order for him to keep his much-loved business afloat, he would have to increase the pricing of his menus drastically.
He said he'd have to charge £12 for a starter portion of asparagus, which is currently priced at £8.45, and £11.95 for his goats cheese starter, which is currently priced at £7.95: "I have to put £4 extra on a starter and then I have to put an £8 extra on a main course. That's just to survive," he says.
