A CAFE owner has slammed “fat cat” energy companies after receiving a £2,800 monthly bill and worries this could be the “final nail in the coffin” for her business.
Kath Coogan has owned and operated Kath’s Cafe in Birmingham, West Midlands for over 10 years but revealed last week that she has faced her “hardest year so far”.
The cafe owner shared documents which show the business is having to fork out £2,800 per month just for electricity – more than £2,100 more than last year’s price.
Serving her local community, Kath shared on social media that she worries that rising energy bills from “rip off” companies could spell the end of her beloved local business.
Kath’s Cafe and Irish Store Maypole serves up hearty food to the local community as well as offering customers the chance to purchase Irish food imported to the United Kingdom.
However, the established cafe now faces forking out the astronomical sum of over £33,000 per year just for electricity if energy costs do not come down.
The invoice for the company shows the billing period from January 1st until the 31st as having £2,294.35 for electricity charges.
An additional charge of £39 brings the pre-VAT total to £2,333.35 though, before 20% VAT of £466.67 is added to give the eye-watering total of £2,800.02 expected to be paid.
Kath shared the image of the electricity bill online last week with the caption: “10 years of running the cafe and can honestly say this is the hardest year so far.
“How is any company supposed to survive when the government allow fat cat rip off energy companies to continuously bash little people?
“This could be the final nail in my coffin, this bill is for one – yes one – month and keeps rising.”
Her post received dozens of likes and comments from social media users who empathised with the much-loved cafe owner.
Gary Staples said: “That is so, so wrong how on earth can it go up that much?”
Lesley Piddington said: “Jesus Kath, that’s incredible, it’s literally one thing after another having premises, it’s just draining.”
Monique Sadler said: “Bills like this are just soul destroying.”
Paul Morton said: “For f**k’s sake, one month? That’s outrageous, how can they justify that?
“I know everything has gone up but that’s taking the piss, I mean even Dick Turpin wore a mask when he robbed people.”
