"WE'RE getting busier every year, but making less money", says the owner of an award-winning café and B&B, forced into sale due to rising costs.
The North Tyne's Fountain Cottage Café and B&B - an award-winning fixture of Bellingham - was placed on the market with Christie & Co in April at a leasehold asking price of £50,000 and a freehold of £450,000, after six and a half years in business.
Owners Michael and Danielle Hudson opened the Northumberland establishment in January 2020, just months before the first Covid-19 lockdown.
Despite their poorly timed start, the pair have managed to establish an excellent reputation, including winning Best Café in Northumberland and Tyne & Wear at England's Business Awards 2021, 2022 and 2023, and finishing runners-up on Channel 4's Four In A Bed in 2023.
Now Michael, who runs the café element, while Danielle oversees the B&B, has attributed the sale of the business to unsustainable bills, including noticeably higher wages, employer National Insurance contributions and business rates.
"The current market for businesses today is hard to operate," said Michael. "It's getting more and more expensive every year.
"Despite making good money, you can still find it hard to get through. You feel like you're getting less and less each year, despite getting busier and busier.
"Wages have jumped almost 60 per cent in five years. Everything's gone up; we're constantly fighting against the stream."
He added that he considers the last five years "the worst in the hospitality industry" over the past two decades.
Regardless of the challenges and a potential sale, Michael wants to remind the public that Fountain Cottage Café and B&B remains open for business.
"We're still trading, we're still providing everything that we've provided since 2020.
"We're planning on continuing as long as we can. The sale is just exploratory, to see what's about and what can happen."
A prospective new owner, he said, wouldn't be starting from scratch - they would be taking on something that's "already working", that "just needs to work better".
"Anyone coming in now knows the market they're starting in.
"We've won the England Business Awards… and the B&B has fantastic reviews; we've done nothing but push it as best as we can."
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