SpudsToGo Abandons Blackpool Location

by Press Office

(WireNews+Co) - London, England - 16 October 2012

SpudsToGo ® today announced that it would abandon Blackpool as a location for its chain of popular jacket potato shops.

Closing nine months to the day after opening, SpudsToGo said that it found the combination of unfavourable Council policies and deteriorating infrastructure unacceptable for positive business growth.

Greg Smith, founder of SpudsToGo said: "We've invested more than £90,000 in Blackpool so it's disappointing to close the shop, but after a great deal of soul-searching I decided that there was simply no future for business in Blackpool."

"Blackpool Council had sought more than £5,000 per year in business rates for a severely deteriorating location in an underperforming market, with high unemployment and is in my opinion seeking to drive small businesses out of business," Smith explained.

"The landlord from whom we rented the shop, Kindvital Limited, failed to make repairs despite regular promises and had recently been served with a legal notice by Blackpool Council requiring immediate repairs to the façade of the building—a very large window above the shop located in a flat was rotten through—which detracted from the appearance of our location and we believed kept customers away," said Smith.

"When I looked at the very high costs of running the shop, the continued failure of the landlord to act responsibly and the Council's intentional efforts to stymie business, the decision was quite easy," confirmed Smith.

For more information about SpudsToGo visit http://www.spudstogo.com (http://www.spudstogo.com).