Belfast bar owners cut opening hours as costs soar
The owners of a bar in North Belfast have cut its opening hours as they wrestle with rising costs.
Fitzpatrick’s Bar on Great George’s Street, which opened in May 2021 and is operated by brothers John and Gerard Fitzpatrick, is slashing its hours after being hit by an energy bill of over £10,000 for the latest quarter.
A Facebook post said the decision was taken in part to ensure staff stay in jobs with Christmas just around the corner.
A post from October 24 read: “We would like to inform you all that we are moving to reduced opening hours as of today.
“We had to make that decision to reduce our hours to cut our overheads. We still don’t know from one week to the next whether it’s going to be our last week.
“We have five people employed in here, if we have to close, that’s five families impacted with Christmas right around the corner.
“The last three months before we’d even paid an electricity bill, it cost us between £6,000 to £7,000 just on paying our staff, our rent, and our stock. Our gas bill was £3,500 for the last quarter, when we very rarely had our heating on, it would’ve been our hot water on just.
“You can’t justify it. Then there’s no help from government at all. You’re hearing stories about them freezing electric prices at a specific unit, that they’re going to subsidise it; but in reality they’re going to do nothing for us. Businesses are being left out in the cold.”
