Hartlepool cafe and patisserie closes due to cost of living crisis

Mrs C’s Patisserie, in Church Street, Hartlepool, is closing its doors for the final time on Saturday, November 25, after a difficult few months.

Opened in 2019, the cafe has struggled through the pandemic and cost of living crisis.

Yet owner Louise Carr explained that it is no longer possible to keep the business open.

The single mum of two said: “Everything has gone up in price – the rent, the electricity – it’s off the chart.

"It costs three times the price to make cakes in the shop than it did a year ago. But I cannot charge that. No one would pay that in Hartlepool.”

She continued: “It has been a really busy two years.

"Everything was going well and then the cost of inflation crippled us.

"There is no way out. I have put my own personal money into it.

"I have two kids to fund and as hard as it was to make, I had no other choice. I have to put them before anyone else.”

Louise, 37, makes all her own cakes and pastries on site and also offers hot food, coffee and drinks.

She is “absolutely heartbroken” by the impending closure of her shop, describing its success as going from “100 to ten” in a matter of months.

Louise said: “I have put £50,000 into the shop and I am leaving with the keys and nothing else.”

Despite opening just months before the Covid pandemic in 2019, Louise managed to stay afloat when other businesses were unable to.

The rise in food and energy prices however, as well as a drop in the number of customers visiting the shop, means that her “dream” of running her own cafe is no longer a plausible reality.

She said: “When I opened this it was another world. That does not exist anymore.”

Louise will be serving customers until 4pm on Saturday, November 25.

Speaking about her next steps, she said: “I don’t know what I’ll do next, but I’ve always worked with cakes and things like that so I hope I can continue with that.”

Her shop actually hosted a meeting in February between then shadow business minister Bill Esterson and traders over the challenges facing independent businesses.