The owners of a Market Lavington takeaway say rising energy costs forced them to close.

Partners Alex Turner and Becky Edwards, who opened Turners Fire at Woodlands Yard in October 2019, were left with no choice but to close the business they had put three years of their life into on December 3.

Mr Turner said: “I do feel sad because we had such lovely customers, and we love what we do, but we were just fighting a losing battle”.

Miss Edwards agreed: “It got to the point where I was getting depressed and anxious. When we announced we were closing so many people were coming up to me in the street saying how sad they were and how sorry they were.

“For me it was a real sadness because we really didn’t have a choice and that’s the sad thing. We put a lot into it both effort and financially so when something like that finishes it’s very sad”.

When Turners Fire first opened, they quickly became a hit with locals due to their high quality food and willingness to experiment.

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald: Turners Fire offered takeaway meals with a twist.Turners Fire offered takeaway meals with a twist. (Image: Turners Fire)

Mr Turner, who had previously worked as a head chef in hotels, aimed to provide restaurant quality food from a takeaway and offered everything from fish and chips and burgers to a midweek roast and four person pies.

“I’d always wanted a takeaway where I could do something different and fresh”, he added.

“Everything we did at Turners was made from scratch and we did specials that you wouldn’t normally get which gave us quite a following”.

Despite their early success business began to drop off after lockdown restrictions ended as people began to go out to eat again.

Things worsened when food prices and energy bills began to spike. This caused the price of items like cooking oil to double, while their electricity bill has more than tripled within three months.

Mr Turner said: “That was the final nail because our electricity now exceeds our rent by quite a lot.

“Our electricity went from £160 to £550 per month even though we were operating at restricted hours.

“We started reducing our hours because of the electricity cost but our trade dropped by about 35 percent”.

Miss Edwards warned other businesses will experience similar issues.

She added: “We couldn’t even afford to put the pizza oven on because the amount of pizzas that we sold wouldn’t cover the cost.

“We’ve got out early on but it’s going to come around soon for other local businesses”.