Popular family-run restaurant to close, saying 'unfortunately, busy no longer means profitable'

V-ATE, based off the A17/17 Sutterton roundabout, is set to close tomorrow (Sunday, June 23) after seven years of trading.

In April, the family behind the automotive-themed restaurant announced their decision to sell the business.

The hope was to find a new ‘custodian’ for the brand. However, this has not happened in time to spare the closure of the restaurant and the loss of the team.

Victoria Burden, who has led the business with husband Neil, told the Standard: “It’s been heartbreaking, but we simply ran out of time to find a buyer.”

She said it was important to her and Neil that they ensured they had enough funds to ‘close the company properly’, so making redundancy payments, fulfilling notice obligations to their team, paying suppliers and so on.

“There is obviously a tipping point for that which we were not prepared to risk,” she said.

V-ATE began life in what was a function room at the Witham and Blues New York-style restaurant and grill at Langrick. The distinctive furniture was created out of old vehicle parts by Victoria’s father Bob Wilding.

The Witham and Blues was run by the same family as V-ATE, but closed in August 2022 amid global and domestic financial challenges.

V-ATE has been a well-supported restaurant, says Victoria, as was the Witham and Blues before it.

However, she said: “Unfortunately, busy no longer means profitable.”

Factors behind this, she said, include VAT, but also staffing costs needed to run a full-service restaurant.

Alongside this is a change in customer behaviour.

"Simply put, our guest demographic have been hit hard by the financial crisis,” she said. “A lot of the places still surviving are either very cheap fast food chains or they garden centres, chain pubs and special occasion restaurants frequented by a more mature guest, retired people and they have felt the impact of the economic climate far less. We have attempted to attract the mature demographic but they are habitual and it’s hard to steal them away to new places. The fun is always the first thing to go when you have no money in your pocket.”

At the time of the Witham and Blues’ closure, Victoria said she felt as though Government policy was ‘working against’ the business.

In speaking to the Standard this week, she again criticised the level of support from Westminster.

“I feel incredibly passionately that we have been let down by our current government and I hold even less hope for the incoming government helping small business which really is a sad feeling.

“When enthusiastic British entrepreneurs feel like it’s a safer bet to work for someone else than to run their own company under a Conservative government I truly believe the system is broken.”

Expanding on this point, she said: “The Government are short-sighted in my opinion, they could give hospitality a VAT break and see growth in the sector whilst operators got back on their feet and they could claim in VAT a smaller percentage of a far bigger pot.”

“They are detached from normal people and small business owners and the incoming government will likely be equally as poor,” she said.

She said, however, she was ‘not prepared to feel like a victim’.

“Along with my hardworking family, I will pick myself up and put my energy into something else”

“I have to look at our V-ATE journey as a lesson – I mentored eight apprentices, built a dream team, managed a hospitality business in the worst financial climate in a generation and most importantly founded and marketed a brand that was incredibly loved and will be remembered fondly by thousands of people. I am confident that V-ATE is not our one and only great idea although I might not be opening any restaurants any time soon.”“The brand as a whole remains for sale but the location and the wonderful team are obviously no longer included.”In a statement published on the business’ website and social media channels, Victoria thanked all those who had supported the business.

To customers, she said: “Thank you for all the visits, the birthday parties, the Father’s Day celebrations, the call-ins on your way home, the watching the football takeouts, and the many more reasons you paid us a visit. It has been the greatest pleasure to have welcomed thousands and thousands of you to our V-ATE restaurants this past seven years.”