A small Bedminster business faces closure after experiencing huge financial losses due to Covid-19.
Since early March, Earthcake has suffered multiple order cancellations which has severely impacted sales and running costs.
The business, located on North Street, solely relies on sales from vegan afternoon tea bookings and cake orders, but now desperately seeks an alternative solution to stay afloat.
With wholesale trade to cafes and restaurants down to zero, owners Gerzson Pszota and Diana are devastated describing the situation as “horrible”.
27-year-old Gerzson, uncertain of the shop's future said: “Words cannot express it - we hardly ever received a cancellation in normal circumstances.
“We had around 5-6 maximum since we opened in 2016, but now it's different. Out of 10 orders at least 8 are cancelled whether it's a birthday cake, afternoon tea booking, wholesale order, and wedding cake or office lunch order.”
As a last resort they decided to set up a gofundme page to raise £6,000 to help towards the costs of bills, staff wages and loans.
Gerzson said: “I know all the small businesses need help during this difficult time, not just us, and we really wanted to manage things without any help but we just can't - it was our last resort.”
For pledges received the owners are offering rewards which include a limited edition Earthcake tote bag, 10% discount card for a year, monthly cake recipes and one cake making class.
“People are super nice and generous and we didn't want to ask for money for nothing so rewards were something we wanted to do for sure,” he said.
With the fear of closure looming, they have decided to offer a takeaway service while awaiting further notice from the government.
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32-year-old Diana said: “There's a really nice community in the area but the people and businesses are very concerned about the next few months.”
Gerzson said: It's really worrying both from a public health and economy point of view. I really hope a vaccine will be available soon as people, especially the elderly are in a lot of danger.
“A lot of people are losing their jobs and a lot of businesses are closing for good.”
