Half of Coventry's West Orchards food court stores close

Five food outlets at Coventry’s West Orchards Shopping Centre have closed suddenly with the loss of 34 jobs.



Hungry shoppers arrived at the popular Terrace Food Court on the top floor of the mall yesterday morning to find half the units shut.

All are owned by the UK catering group Morgan Catering Ltd which has closed all its businesses in Coventry.

The group axed Simply Spuds, Baguette and Co, Napoli Pizza and Pasta, Harpers, and Vite Patisserie saying it was unable to make them commercially viable.

West Orchards has vowed to work to replace the vital eateries which attract much-needed footfall to one of Coventry’s prime city centre shopping locations.

Ian Morgan, director of Morgan Catering, said: “We’ve been trading in Coventry for 21 years since West Orchards first opened.

“Unfortunately, in spite of the best efforts of our staff and an extremely committed workforce, we’re unable to make the business commercially viable.

“We want to extend our thanks to our loyal customers over 21 years but unfortunately we’ve had to close the business in Coventry.”

The closures leave just McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, Cocoa Caffe and Shake on West Orchards Shopping Centre’s Level 2 eating area.

Centre manager Andy Talbot said: “They are closed and we’re talking to the business.

“We’ll work really hard to get these re-occupied or re-let as quickly as we can. We’ve just got to get on with it. We’re still open for business with the remaining five units.”

After hurriedly stripping down the units on Monday night, staff informed visitors they were “closed until further notice” yesterday.

Claire Graham, 28, of William Street, Nuneaton, said: “We were just about to go up there now – we’re starving.

“It’s going to lose a lot of trade. West Orchards will lose out because everyone goes up there to eat.”

Valerie Evans, 40, of Grafton Street, Stoke, said: “I used to work in McDonalds up there and it used to be heaving.

“You used to have the queue stretching all along the terrace. Now there are a hell of a lot less people up there.”

Adam McMillan, 21, a charity worker from Norwich working at West Orchards for a week, said: “It sucks because a lot of people seem to go up to get their food there.

"But if they have to shut, they have to shut.

"At the end of the day if you have to save money some places have to close.”

Pensioner Synthia Cogley, 70, of Nunts Lane, Holbrooks, said: “It’s sad. We don’t want to hear of anywhere closing in Coventry.”

Firms hungry to move into empty West Orchards food units



MORE than 10 businesses have already shown an interest in taking up empty food units at West Orchards Shopping Centre.

As we reported earlier this week, five outlets at the centre’s popular Terrace Food Court closed suddenly on Monday night – but the centre’s managers have promised the units will not be empty for long.

Morgan Catering Ltd, which owns all five of the affected units, said they were forced to axe the units because they were no longer commercially viable.

The outlets closed included Simply Spuds, Baguette & Co, Napoli Pizza & Pasta, Harpers and Vite Patisserie.

Within a day of the news of the closures getting out, centre manager Andy Talbot said they had already received enquiries from more than 10 other food operators who were interested in taking up the unoccupied units.

He said: “Luckily we have been in a position for many years that the food court has been fully let and we have been turning away enquiries from businesses.

“So bearing in mind we have not even advertised these units yet, I am delighted that we have still had so many enquiries from food operators who are interested in coming into the city.

“We see this as really good news for Coventry that people are interested in coming here and we hope to have the units up and running again soon.”

Mr Talbot said he could not reveal which businesses had shown an interest in the food court most recently but said they included “large, well-known brands and catering companies”.

He said negotiations with some of the businesses had already begun and they were looking into bringing in short term deals while long term contracts were agreed.

“There are some great brands who have enquired about renting a unit, which is fantastic,” he added.

“With all these things it will take time to come off but we are looking at a short-term plan with certain operators so that we can get use back into some of the units sooner rather than later.

“We are hoping to get something sorted fairly quickly to keep the footfall going and to keep our customers happy.”

Morgan Catering had run all five units in the shopping centre since it opened 21 years ago.

Its closure has meant the loss of 34 jobs and now leaves just McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, Cocoa Cafe and Shake open on the centre’s level two eating area.

In the interim Cocoa Cafe has been given permission to have its licence extended to offer extra products.

The canvas stall closed down same month to due to centre manager andy talbot taking backhanders. Go on to you tube and type in andy talbot xpress image west orchards. There you will find 6 recordings of andy talbot dealing with the canvas stall owner. And through listening to all 6 meetings and 1 recording of the trader on the bag stall that gave the backhander it is quite clear andy talbot is a very disshonest man