Businesses are facing rising costs which is having an impact on how they operate.
Harry Picken’s family have run Ginger and Pickles for 21 years. It now has five sites and employs 68 staff.
More expensive ingredients and energy costs are among the challenges the business is facing, but one of the major issues is staff.
“The vast majority of our costs relate to employment, so we have 68 staff and have large annual and monthly employment costs,” he said.
“With increases in national living wage and national minimum wage, it increases costs massively.”
He added the business had been very keen to employ younger people but it was “becoming harder and harder”.
“If you have someone who is 30 and applying with five years of experience, they’re probably going to get the job over someone who is 18 with no experience,” he said.
“It’s great taking that punt with a young person, because they gain communication skills from it, we get their enthusiasm and everyone benefits. But when the costs are more or less the same, it becomes much harder to justify that.”
