A restaurant owner has warned that diners could face at least €4 extra on a main course as price increases hit businesses “left, right and centre”.
Mick Hughes from The Stockhouse Restaurant in Trim, Co Meath, estimates his supply and wage costs have gone up by an average of 26% – and this is before energy price rises on May 1.
He now believes the industry is “running on borrowed time”.
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Mr Hughes said: “Inflation is likely to be rated at 7% today but you can triple that in my case.
“A 20-litre drum of cooking oil has risen from €22 to €32 which is a 45% increase and we buy up to four of them each week.
“Catering sized packs of chicken have shot up 25% and chips are up 30%. We have been told we won’t be able to get chunky chips soon as the skin is being used to feed pigs due to a shortage of meal.
“Flour is now €18.50 for a catering sized bag which we were paying €12.50 for and all these prices continue to spiral on a daily basis.
“Services have risen 10% and we put our wages up by up to 18% in an effort to keep hold of the staff we have because many of them left the industry during the pandemic.
“We used to be open seven days a week and we scaled this back to five days because of staff shortages. Chefs discovered they could have a life and more money by working in other industries.
“The reliefs the Government afforded us in the pandemic were a lifeline but now it looks as if they will have been wasted.
“We have been trying to take the hit as much as possible but have had to pass on some to customers so main courses have increased by €2 and possibly will rise again by at least another €2.
“People are going to either stop going out or eat out much less.”
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