The owner of a multi-million-pound luxury restaurant, beauty salon and mini spa destination has said she is ‘utterly devastated’ and ‘completely destroyed’ to see the business go into liquidation just weeks after opening.
Debbie Tams invested £2.7 million into – and spent six years planning, battling, borrowing and even losing her home in the process of setting up – Beauty and the Bistro in Basford.
The restaurant side of the business opened on 30 November, but it was announced on 29 January that it had gone into liquidation due to lack of trade with 21 people losing their jobs.
The beauty section was due to open in Spring.
The property and contents are currently being sold by Middleton Barton. Some offers have been made already.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Focus, Debbie said: “The plan was to use the profits from the restaurant to complete the fitout of the beauty upstairs, but it soon became evident that no profits were forthcoming, apart from the odd Saturday.
“I firmly believed that we had found a gap in the market for really good, quality food and that great staff, a beautiful interior and atmosphere would enhance the experience. Sadly, I was wrong and there were a few complaints about the price, despite keeping the prices as low as we feasibly could.
“Despite positive cash flow projections, the phenomenal cost of unnecessary bureaucracy, electricity, salaries, quality chefs and ingredients, and the initial massive set-up costs, far outweighed the income from a few tables.
“Despite heavy investment into marketing, we sat empty for most of the day and each week made substantial losses. I had no option but to close quickly before the losses grew.
“Sadly, there followed a mass onslaught of conspiracy theories and attacks on social media which were personally devastating – I’m not quite sure how I’m supposed to have laundered money when I walk away with nothing and have lost everything. Despite my investment, the property is now only worth the low Stoke bricks-and-mortar value.”
Several high-end restaurants have closed in Stoke-on-Trent in recent weeks, including The Potters’ Club and Feasted, which was home to the Chef’s Table dining experience.
Debbie described the current UK business climate as ‘impossible’.
She said: “Unless a business has reserves, very few can survive in this environment, especially with high levels of debt funding. There are so many businesses collapsing now, particularly in hospitality, and the raft of employee rights and National Insurance hikes will only serve to kill off many more.
“The current Government seem to forget that SMEs are the backbone of the economy, and it is the small businesses that provide the jobs for the workers, let alone much of the tax revenue.”
Debbie added: “This experience has completely destroyed me, and I will never set up a business again. Once I have had time to recover from the trauma, I will offer my services and experience to another company as an employee and hope that it has not all been in vain.”
Anyone who would like to contact Debbie regarding employment should email debbietams@ymail.com
Anyone interested in viewing the property should contact Thomas Duckworth of Middleton Barton Agents via 0161 359 4633 or tom@middletonbarton.com
Do be fair to Debbie she gave it a go but questions are going to be asked,if she knew the hospitality business was always going to be a struggle why did she invest so much money knowing potentially it wouldn’t work. The business was always in the wrong place for what she was charging and why didn’t her accountant give her the figures with sound advice starting off with a £2.7 million pound investment which would always be a struggle to recover.
Thank you for your comment Martin. Firstly, I began on this journey 6 years ago when the climate was good and I had plenty of professional advisors. We didn’t know that the whole project would cost the amount it did (most people end up paying double despite accurate calculations PLUS material cost doubled after covid) and I wanted quality for the good people of Stoke (there are still plenty who like quality and are willing to pay for it – or so I thought). If I had opened in London, I would have been lost in the mire. Stoke needed something like this and I believed it would have been popular since there was nothing like it around. Don’t forget I had the spa and beauty income too and both the restaurant and the beauty would have potentially fed the other sector. Sadly, I couldn’t quite finish the beauty because there were no profits from the restaurant and it soon became clear that we were making substantial losses. The investors were not happy at all. Sadly, despite not taking any risks themselves, the general public appear to know better and many choose to advise me, tell me what I did wrong, criticise, question, ridicule, vilify and rip me to pieces. I am just a girl trying her best.
Credit to you Debbie for trying . I’m sorry for you that it didn’t work. In a time when there is more money than ever, it can’t help to be seen that there has never been so little spent on the nice things for one reason or another.
Everyone has their opinions, good or bad; but those opinions don’t really matter. What matters is being able to hold your head high comfortable that you at least tried.
That moment just before you opened the doors for the first time, focus on the pride of what your vision had built. No matter how something is received, it does not diminish its value or intention.