Rosie’s Cookstown , run by baker Rosie Doyle, has closed down as she said she could no longer justify passing rising prices on to consumers.
The price of ingredients, electricity and rent had all increased significantly in recent months for the bakery, while the return of business rates following a two year holiday was too much for Rosie to absorb.
“Since January I have noticed the price of everything just going up and up,” she said.
“My rent was due to go up in April, my electric bill just kept going up and for last month it was £950 alone.
“People are already trying to find that extra money for the increase in ingredients or for staff wages.
“There was only so much I could put my prices up so I made the difficult decision to close the doors.”
Rosie is still feeling the effects of long Covid, after catching the virus last August.
“I’ve been doing everything all this time and I just wasn’t fit to do it any more, physically or mentally,” she said.
“The rising costs would cripple anybody and it really is scary. I did start to put my prices up but at the end of the day it’s still just a cookie or a brownie.
“People can always go to a supermarket and buy four for a pound so you kind of have to be realistic about it. A few months ago people would have literally been coming in filling boxes, whereas now people would have been asking more about prices and not buying as much.
“Closing Rosie’s will probably be the toughest and most life changing decision I’ll ever make,” she said.
