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south EDITION roundtownnews.com
Issue 694
1 - 7 february 2013
Support local business or risk losing them EVERYWHERE ONE looks, town centres, urbanisations and commercial centres are littered with empty business centres, with for sale and for rent signs adorning their doors.
Torrevieja’s Plaza which is 90% closed and awaiting rengeneration
by Keith Nicol After the property boom years ago when new property agents, corner shops, pubs and restaurants all seemed to pop up on a weekly basis, the last four years have seen a global downturn in earnings and high unemployment with many families and businesspeople and fearing what the future will bring during this current crisis. One local, popular restauranteur said “The first indication of a problem was the change in the Euro to Pound exchange rate, which for a lot of people made such a difference to the amount of their pensions, followed by a lot of scare mongering amongst the World’s media, which in effect stopped the economy. Everyone stopped spending; people held on to what they had because
they were not sure what was going to happen. Every week we look on as a steady number of local businesses close their doors. The problem that they are faced with is that whether they take any money or not, they still have the same overheads to pay, electricity, water, gas, social security, wages, IVA, supplies, advertising, asesoria, (Lawyer), rent and rates, that is all before they can think about making any money! A very good friend of mine who runs a very popular restaurant said that one day last week she only took 11€ and as you can see from the list of overheads, it cost her a lot more to be open than she took. She also said she was not sure just how long she would be able to remain open as without the support of her clientele she has no cash flow left to put back into the restaurant to keep it open!” Continued on page 6