Milligan's Kitchen in Finedon to shut its doors for good this week citing rising energy and supplier costs for its closure

Rising costs have forced Milligan’s Kitchen in Burton Road, Finedon to close its doors this week after nine years of trading in the town.

In a familiar, but disappointing, decision a local business that was opened to serve the people of the town breakfast, coffee, cakes and more has been swallowed by the state of the current economic climate.

Tom Murray owns the establishment with his wife. He said the decision to close the business was ‘pretty straight forward’, and that despite it being a success for years, it simply could not match the skyrocketing cost of energy needed to keep the lights on.

He added: “The customer base we had was tremendous. We’re going to miss them all.”

A Facebook post from the business said: "We have had to make the very tough decision to close Milligan’s Kitchen for good as we can no longer afford to stay open.

“We have just been informed that our electricity has increased by 214 per cent, our supplier costs are going up week on week and with staff costs increasing on 1st April, we just can’t sustain this.

“We are so disappointed but have no choice.”

Its final day trading will be tomorrow (Friday, March 17).

Milligan’s Kitchen began its life in May 2014, and became a staple of Finedon’s eateries alongside the likes of Crusty’s in Wellingborough Road.

But while the latter is looking to the future with Bitcoin as a payment method, the former is unable to find a way to survive with high energy costs.

The building was formerly occupied by TOF Home Furnishings and later Ken’s Diner.

The cafe survived the Covid-19 pandemic, and weathered the storm of the cost of living crisis for as long as it could.

Tom, who took on the challenge of running Milligan’s Kitchen after retiring from the fire service, said: "Our luck has not been great.

"The plan was to put it on the market in 2020.

"Because we had a good customer base it didn’t take us long to get going again.”

Sadly Milligan’s Kitchen is not alone as the cost of living crisis has claimed several small businesses in north Northamptonshire, including The Griffin in Mears Ashby and Ugly Mug in Wellingborough.