Long-established fish & chip shop, Market Rasen

Key features

• £320,000+ audited turnover to December 2023, c.£6,150 per week
• Same owners for over 20 years, retiring on health grounds
• Asking price set well below normal leasehold value to fund refurbishment
• Halifax 3-pan split counter frying range in place
• Unopposed in a well-known picturesque market town

About this business

A traditional purpose-built takeaway fish & chip shop in the heart of a picturesque Lincolnshire market town, audited at over £320,000 a year — around £6,150 a week — and traded successfully by the same English owners for more than twenty years. Health issues have forced the vendors to step back, leaving the shop staff-run and the wage bill inflated, which is reflected in an asking price set well below what a chippy at this turnover would normally command. For younger, hands-on hands willing to refurbish and reintroduce a proper trading rhythm, the upside is straightforward.

Trading figures

Gross audited turnover to December 2023 was in excess of £320,000, working out at roughly £6,150 a week. The current wage bill of around £72,000 is inflated by the vendor's health issues keeping him out of the business — the shop is presently management and staff controlled rather than owner-run. All trade is takeaway, with clear scope to introduce a delivery service and to extend the currently restricted trading hours, both of which should lift weekly takings further.

Trading hours

Monday to Thursday: 11.30am – 1.30pm and 4.30pm – 8.00pm latest. Friday and Saturday: 11.30am – 2.00pm and 4.30pm – 8.30pm latest.

Business premises

A traditional, purpose-built olde-worlde fish & chip shop with double frontage and overhead signage. The central door leads into a compact older-styled sales shop with small bar-stool seating for four, divided off by a full-width service counter that houses the Halifax 3-pan split counter frying range. Walls and flooring are part-tiled throughout. An adjacent door from the enclosed frying area opens into purpose-built fish and potato preparation facilities, with a private office and a large dry stock room beyond, plus access to further outhouses. To the rear is a large garden — currently unkept — with additional shed storage. The premises are clean and tidy as they stand, but genuinely want a full refurbishment to bring them into the 21st century, and the asking price has been pitched with that work in mind.

Trade equipment

The headline item is a Frank Ford 3-pan split counter frying range with central service counter — older in styling but in good working order, and the heart of the operation. Alongside it: fridges and freezers, bain-marie, pie display cabinet, glass-door drinks fridge, cash register, microwave oven, stainless-steel sinks and shelving, upright fish keeper, 56lb peeler and chipper. Items have not been formally tested — buyers should commission an independent inspection.

Accommodation

Lock-up shop — no residential accommodation is included with this business.

Trading position

Set in the heart of an unopposed, well-known picturesque market town. The surrounding resident population secures year-round trade, with further demand drawn from the many outlying villages and catchment areas. Easy travelling distances to Lincoln, Market Rasen and Horncastle, with access to both the A158 and A157 through routes feeding the town.

Special remarks

Rosens would highlight that the asking price is set well below the level a fish & chip shop turning over £6,000-plus a week would normally command. The discount reflects two things: the premises need refurbishment and modernisation throughout, and profitability has been compressed by the additional staffing costs the vendor has had to carry while stepping back on health grounds. For an owner-operator or family team prepared to do the refurbishment work, run the counter themselves, and add a delivery channel and fuller trading hours, the route to materially better numbers is clearly visible in the figures already on the page.