Much-loved family favourite restaurant to shut its doors for good in just days leaving diners gutted
A BELOVED pizzeria has closed for good after battling soaring costs, leaving loyal customers devastated.
Three Joes Sourdough Pizza, renowned for its freshly made sourdough pizzas, has officially shut down.
The restaurant’s branch in Meadowhall’s upper Oasis Dining Quarter will close this week.
The Pizzeria, which first opened in 2019, is the latest casualty at the Sheffield shopping complex.
Three Joes Sourdough Pizza claimed to make all pizzas “fresh, with the finest” ingredients.
Announcing the closure, a spokesperson for the restaurant said: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of our Three Joes restaurant at Meadowhall, effective this week.”
They added: “This has been an incredibly difficult decision for us, but like many restaurants in the current climate, we are facing ever-increasing costs that have made it exceptionally difficult.”
Devastated diners shared their disappointment, with one saying: “So gutted, used to bring the kids here.”
Another wrote: “Wow, so sad to see another place close.”
One customer questioned: “Why is everything closing down?”
Three Joes’ Winchester branch will remain open.
The pizzeria is not the only restaurant to face difficulty with rising costs.
The closure comes just days after Bistrot Pierre suddenly closed eight locations, leaving 150 staff out of work.
The closures affected branches in Sutton Coldfield, Newport, Southport, Birmingham, Preston, Kidderminster, Leamington Spa, and Coventry, with bosses blaming Labour’s tax hikes in the Autumn Budget for piling pressure on hospitality businesses.
Nick White, CEO of Bistrot Pierre, said of the closures: “The impending increases in National Minimum Wage and National Insurance contributions will add hundreds of thousands of pounds to our costs, making our smaller locations simply unviable.”
Another beloved Italian restaurant once described as a “diamond” by diners suddenly shut its doors after nearly 50 years of operations.
Santoro in Yarm, North Yorkshire, announced on its website that it had permanently closed its doors after a “wonderful 45 years of business.”
Elsewhere, well-known Italian restaurant chain Wildwood, announced the closure of its restaurant in Chelsmford.
The hospitality sector has been hit hard by rising expenses and government tax changes, with many struggling to survive in a tough financial climate.
Hospitality industry struggles
Many food and drink businesses have faced significant challenges recently, as the rising cost of living has led to a decline in dining out.
After struggling to recover from the impact of the pandemic, many establishments were then hit with soaring energy bills and mounting inflationary pressures.
This has forced several well-known chains to shut locations, with big brands like Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny’s among those affected.
Craig Rachel, director at financial advisory firm AlixPartners, outlined the key factors that have driven businesses to close sites last year, in 2024.
He said: “Restaurants have seen the accumulation of external pressures in 2024, including rising utility costs, food prices and labour costs.
“Although some of these factors have stabilised over recent months, the overall impact is significant and will be exacerbated again in 2025 following the budget announcements, and this has all affected profitability.
“Some restaurant groups have been able to mitigate this to a certain extent through operational efficiencies and pricing, but consumer spending in the sector is under pressure meaning price measures are often unable to fully bridge the gap.”
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”