A HUGE dessert chain with 30 locations has been forced to close shop after just six months.
The Jars dessert bar in Edinburgh’s trendy Quartermile shut its doors for good on April 25, despite the business only opening in November last year.
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Eight staff members were allegedly suddenly left jobless with one senior manager blasting the way they were treated by bosses.
Ian Munro, the last manager of the now-shuttered Lister Square branch, said he was “fuming” after being told the company would be closing up shop with barely a day’s notice.
Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News, Ian slammed Icon Brand – the company behind the Jars chain.
He claimed workers were “meant to be given two weeks’ notice but they weren’t”.
Ian told the outlet: “The new owners let the place go to the wall. And they let staff go without any redundancy payments.
“This has left them all, quite rightly, very annoyed. I was upset that I’d have to be letting them go, but I was told it would be done properly.”
He revealed he only got a call from management on the afternoon before the closure, with the shutters coming down the next day.
Describing the Friday as a “tough last shift”, he said: “Everyone was still a bit in shock and angry about the whole situation and how it had been dealt with by the company.”
Ian, who has now quit the business in protest, said the final straw came after staff had trouble getting their last pay packet on time.
“We have all been paid now, but there was an initial problem with the most recent wages which just made the situation worse,” he said.
Ian added that he handed in his notice because he doesn’t “want to work for a company that treats its staff like that”.
He continued: “People need to know how badly the staff there were treated. I’m worried about them. They have got bills to pay amid a cost of living crisis.
“I’ve got a new job lined up so I’m ok, but I’m worried about them and quite angry with the company. It’s horrible to see the staff treated like that.”
TROUBLE ON THE HIGH STREET
Plenty of other retailers are closing stores across the high street as households lean more towards online shopping and amid high business rates.
Soaring inflation in recent years has also dented shoppers’ pockets.
The Centre for Retail Research’s latest analysis suggests 13,479 stores, the equivalent of 37 each day, shut for good in 2024.
Of those, 11,341 were independent shops while 2,138 were shut by larger retailers.
The data also showed over half the stores that closed last year were shut due to the store or retailer going through insolvency proceedings.
What is happening to the hospitality industry?
This is when formal measures are taken to deal with tackling a business’s debt.
Retailers are also shutting stores in 2025.
New Look is ramping up a store closure programme ahead of April’s National Insurance hike.
Approximately a quarter of the retailer’s 364 stores are at risk when their leases expire.
This equates to about 91 stores, with a significant impact on its 8,000-strong workforce.