29/02/2024
A little update…
We have now all decided to step away from the cafe (which was almost renamed “The Fig”, for those wondering… well done to everyone who guessed that, and sorry we can’t honour the reward!). It’s been an incredible journey at The Retreat; one we’ve learned a lot from and are really grateful for.
Overall as a first foray into the business world goes, we’re pretty proud of ourselves. We navigated a few global “crises”, energy and food costs up crazy amounts & who knew the taxman takes that much?! (Seriously - hospitality feels unnecessarily difficult with an insane 20% VAT on top of rates, income tax, corporation tax… a topic for another day…)
Anyway despite the challenges we’ve loved the experience and are so grateful to everyone we’ve met and who has helped us along the way.
Our suppliers - local and further afield, our amazing team (which has changed over the years), support from The Retreat and all the amazing people working together under that roof and most importantly our wonderful customers without whose support we wouldn’t have made it as far as we did.
For what it’s worth - in the end - it was just too much. We tipped the work/life balance a little too far into the “work” side and it has become clear we need more “life”. So in the short term we’re gonna relax and enjoy each others company without the pressures of small business.
For those interested - Will is working as a Chef in Ringwood, Mark and Alana are already involved in other new projects in Bournemouth & Southbourne respectively, and George continues to do a most excellent job as a delivery driver.
We wish the absolute best to everyone we’ve worked with over the years in their future endeavours and look forward to seeing familiar faces in yoga classes, on the beach and in the forest - anywhere but from behind that coffee machine! 😅
Nothing but love x
