A coffee business founder who felt “sick to his stomach” after closing his company’s shops has urged politicians to do more to protect struggling hospitality firms.
Rounton Coffee founder David Beattie expanded the business with shops across Teesside, including a Middlesbrough town centre branch.
However, the hugely popular store in Bedford Street closed in September 2023, before also shutting the Norton branch the following June amid soaring costs that meant that arm of the business was “simply unsustainable”.
Since then, the North Yorkshire roastery has bounced back, with seven of its coffees recently earning at least one star in the prestigious Great Taste Awards.
However, Mr Beattie says the experience remains the lowest point of his career.
“Making the decision to close the Bedford Street branch was absolutely the right thing to do, but it still crushed the team and me,” said David. “I was gutted for everyone, especially the customers who loved that space. I felt sick to my stomach because we had built something people genuinely cared about. But we explored every possible way to make it work, and it simply couldn’t survive.”
The closures allowed the business to concentrate solely on roasting coffee and wholesale supply. Since then, significant investment in new equipment and growing demand from customers – including with the firm’s growing subscription service – has helped the company expand its reach.
Despite that success, Mr Beattie believes many independent hospitality businesses remain under “insane” financial pressure.
His comments came after former Prime Minister and Rishi Sunak visited Rounton Coffee’s headquarters, where Mr Beattie challenged him – and others in Westminster – to do more to support the struggling sector.
“Having the former Prime Minister visit was a chance to speak directly about the struggles facing independent businesses, especially in hospitality and food and drink,” he said. “There have been some incredible local businesses that should be really viable but, through no fault of their own, have failed. Hospitality has always been built on optimism and historically, when one business closed another entrepreneur was ready to invest and create something new. That cycle of innovation and optimism is drying up and currently it feels like one-way traffic.”
Mr Beattie said many business owners were now focused on survival rather than growth because of rising costs.
“I know business owners full of ambition, but rising costs mean they can’t invest or recruit and they are forced to prioritise survival over growth,” he said. “That’s policy failure, not bad luck. Companies can’t survive on warm words from Westminster. They need an environment that gives them the confidence and financial headroom to grow, while politicians must do more to stop viable businesses from vanishing. If MPs remain on the sidelines, there won’t be a hospitality sector left to save.”
During the visit, Mr Sunak toured the award-winning roastery and even tried roasting coffee beans.
The pair also discussed the company’s support for the North Yorkshire Moors Trust’s Stepping Stones to Nature programme, which helps children from some of the region’s most deprived communities experience the countryside.
While Mr Beattie says closing the cafe was one of the hardest decisions he has made, he believes focusing on the roastery has secured the company’s future. “The business is in a far better place now, and as devastating as that was, the reality is it put the company on a much stronger footing to move forward,” he said. But the harsh reality is that there are still far too many good businesses disappearing, and politicians need to stop talking about growth while the businesses creating it are going bust.”
