Sunlight cafes to shut
TIME is nearly up for three Sunlight Cafe branches.
Branches of the Sunlight Cafe at healthy living centres in Rainham, Rochester and Lordswood will shut up shop on March 31.
Despite being popular with residents they have failed to make a profit since opening two years ago.
They serve low-cost healthy meals and provide a base for community activities.
Sunlight's operations director Sam Bennett said: "They're losing money. Cafe Sunlight doesn't receive any grants to run them and as much a the community like them we can't sustain the losses. We've run them for two years and despite trying different strategies to make them work we've never made money. We wouldn't shut them unless we had to."
Mr Bennett would not say what would happen to staff other than restructuring taking place.
He welcomed regular visitors to come to the Sunlight Cafe at the Sunlight Centre, Richmond Road, Gillingham, saying: "If more people can make it there we would be happy to accommodate them."
Are you a Sunlight customer? Will you miss the cafes and would you be willing to travel to Gillingham to eat at one?
Comments
by Nicholas snr, Chatham, Kent
Wednesday, March 24 2010, 10:47AM
“It would be interesting to know whether the cost of the 'rent' charged by Medway LIFTco ( a public / private partnership) was a determining factor. IF it was - and assuming trade was good and the cafes were adding-value to the work of the HLC - were alternative payment structures investigated? If we've learnt anything from the banking crisis it is that we need to move on from a business model based on 'knowing the price of everything - and the value of nothing'.”