An Ellon cafe has become the latest victim of the Covid pandemic, with the owners announcing that the business has ceased immediately.
The Ellon Kirk Centre Coffee Shop is not reopening due to financial pressures brought on by the lockdown meaning the premises is no longer viable.
All staff and volunteers at the cafe have lost their jobs after a decision was made to close it “with tears and really heavy hearts.”
It is the third hospitality business to announce its closure over the last week, with Formartine’s and Grant Arms Cafe and B&B also shutting.
Closing the business
The coffee shop was run within the Ellon Parish Church and had served the wider community for more than 20 years.
However, following months of talks between board members, it was decided that the business was no longer financially viable.
Rev Alastair Bruce announced the closure in a video message to customers on their Facebook page.
He said: “The board of directors has been looking very closely at the business and the potential for reopening.
“Now, a major part of looking at reopening the coffee shop was to have a long, hard look at the finances and how the pandemic has affected this.
“And the pandemic has, unfortunately, hit us really hard.
“The board has had a lot of really hard conversations over the past year and some of those conversations have resulted in people we love and who have worked for and supported the coffee shop for a long time being made redundant so that we could continue trading.
“The meetings we’ve had in the last month have shown us that, unfortunately, those redundancies have not been enough so with tears and really heavy hearts, we’ve come to the decision that we can’t carry on with the coffee shop.
“So we have to close the business, which is effective immediately.”
What next for the building?
Rev Bruce thanked all the staff, volunteers, and customers for their support over the years to help create such a “wonderful community space.”
That includes manager Iris Murray, who has been in charge of the cafe since it opened.
He revealed that the church did not know what they would be doing next with the cafe space, but that they wanted to continue the legacy somehow.
He added: “I’m not really sure what this space will become now, the Kirk Session will be tasked with having a think about what growth could come from this space.
“The coffee shop was such a creative, forward-thinking, and innovative idea when it opened and I reckon that we need to build on that legacy and have a think about what is creative, innovative, and forward-thinking for Ellon in 2021 and beyond.
“But for now, we need a wee bit of time to get our heads around what has happened, and what we need to do to deal with that now.”