Popular bistro business hits the market with ?50k price tag
A popular café and bistro business has gone up for sale in Eaglescliffe[1].
Station Five Brunch and Bistro, on Station Road, has been hugely popular with locals since first opening in 2017. It was taken over by current owner Paul Smith and his business partner in 2022, who took on the establishment as ‘a bit of a challenge’ after years in business.
The 60-year-old businessman had been a regular customer at Station Five and took it over hoping to build a reputation for great food after years working in the clothing industry. Now he had decided to sell the business and move onto pastures new so someone else can ‘give it the attention to take it to the next stage’.
Paul, who also owns Bakers Tailoring on Linthorpe[3] Road in Middlesbrough[4], has spent the last year perfecting the menu on offer and turning the venue into ‘more of a bistro than a café’. At the moment it only opens five days a week, but he thinks there’s lots of potential to grow the business, but he doesn’t have the time to commit.
He explained: “We feel like we’ve done what we set out to do which was to get a great reputation for food. Now we both feel it needs somebody who can give it a bit more attention to take it to the next stage.”
Station Five has gone up for sale with commercial estate agents Parker Barras and comes with a pretty price tag of just £49,999. It comes raring to go with a string of positive reviews, including a 4.9/5 Google reviews, 4.9/5 on Facebook[5] with over 550 reviews, and a five-star food hygiene[6] rating.
Paul has recently acquired an alcohol licence for the venue, however as they are currently open Tuesday to Saturday 9am ’til 4pm, there isn’t much opportunity to benefit from this, something he feels the next owner can capitalise on. He added: “I just feel that it needs someone to give it more love than we can.”
The bistro is already fully staffed and offers seating for 20 customers inside and an additional 12 outside. It even recently hosted its first ever cocktail evening which he described as a ‘huge success’.
Paul says despite selling the business, he still intends to be a regular customer but is ready to move on to expand his online offering with Bakers Tailoring, which he has run for 40 years. He said: “I’ll still be going for breakfast everyday. The food is excellent.
“There’s a great team in there. I’m passionate about customer service and the service is phenomenal, I believe.”
When asked if the cost of living crisis has had an impact on his decision to move on, Paul said it has ‘obviously had an impact’ but it wasn’t his main motivation for making the next step. The lease currently has three years remaining at a rental of £10,000 per annum.
“I was a client of Station Five and I loved the business and I just thought it was time to try something new – and I’ve done that now,” added Paul.
For more information on the Station Five listing, you can visit the Parker Barras website, here[7].
References
- ^ Eaglescliffe (www.gazettelive.co.uk)
- ^ Investigation launched into Teesworks fire after worker ‘seriously injured’ during demolition work (www.gazettelive.co.uk)
- ^ Linthorpe (www.gazettelive.co.uk)
- ^ Middlesbrough (www.gazettelive.co.uk)
- ^ Facebook (www.gazettelive.co.uk)
- ^ food hygiene (www.gazettelive.co.uk)
- ^ here (parkerbarras.co.uk)