“ROYALLY screwed” is how the owners of a new coffee shop in Leamington expressed it after their frontage was boarded up without permission.
Bewitched fear a dramatic drop in profits at their new £300,000 store on the Parade. Just weeks after their grand opening, the whole of the front of the shop has been completely boarded up and hidden to accommodate roof repairs on the Royal Priors Shopping Centre.
Bewitched coffee chain founder Matt Fountain claims they were not properly consulted on this.
He told the Observer: “We received a very brief notice about the works and that ‘scaffolding’ would be going up outside the store.
“We totally get that and, with numerous town centre stores, we have had to accommodate scaffolding outside our stores before. But this isn’t scaffolding. This is boarding.
“You cannot see our beautiful new store from the usually idyllic surroundings of Leamington Parade. It’s a complete cover-up.
“As a result of that cover-up, we predict that we’ll drop 80 per cent of our projected revenue. Not to mention the severe loss of potential brand growth, being a new tenant in the area trying to grow our presence within the local community.
Mr Fountain added that to add further insult, their near neighbours hadn’t been affected.
He continued: “Their store remains completely visible to the passing public. Being an independent business with no large funder, this significantly affects our entire operation. We have been royally screwed. And we want answers.”
The boards are anticipated to be in place for the next six weeks.
A Royal Priors spokesperson said they had a responsibility to complete essential maintenance works to what is a listed building and financial compensation had been agreed prior to installation.
They added they hoped to be in a position to remove the hoarding in a matter of weeks but in the meantime were in the process of applying messaging to the boarded up frontage but this required artwork from Bewitched Coffee.
As soon as this is received arrangements will be made to install.
