Golf shop and café hopes to pivot to clinic amid business struggles

Wednesday 17 April 2024

A Beaumont-based golf shop and café which has struggled with costs and staffing challenges could be transformed into a sports clinic with a “holistic approach” aiming to benefit the community, if Planning agrees.

Owner and Director of Green Goose Jersey, Alex Mollin, has applied to convert the premises into a health and wellbeing centre with seven consultancy/physio rooms.

The application explained that this would only involve internal changes, and that the façade of the building and parking arrangements would not have to change.

Documents submitted with the planning application explained that the decision to apply to change the building followed difficulties with operating the retail and hospitality businesses.

The café and golf shop's creation was described as having been "spurred on by optimism of a post-pandemic recovery", but both businesses went on to make losses in 2022 and 2023, architects HD Planning and Design Ltd said in their planning application.

"At this stage it was unknown that covid-19 challenges would continue into 2022, and that these businesses would face the economic effect of a cost of living crisis, a post-pandemic consumer market that has shifted, and considerable recruitment difficulties within local hospitality. Collectively despite best efforts, this has resulted in significant unforeseen challenges," a letter from the architecture firm said.

Pictured: Green Goose Jersey is based in The Pavilions building on La Route de Beaumont, St Peter.

Amid "continually increasing costs and ongoing challenges", estate agents were contacted in January 2023 to help find a tenant to rent the retail space. However, the letter said there were just two viewings within 15 months, with one interested party "deemed unsuitable".

Co-Director Nicola Mollin previously told Express in December how the café had been forced to cut opening hours and put up its prices due to continually rising costs.

"The pressures have been increasing over the last few months, and every single thing we order has steadily gone up in price, whether that's milk, coffee, electricity," she said.

It is not the only hospitality business to have hit struggles.

In the same week as Green Goose Jersey announced its changes, it emerged that Nude Food's two sites in the west of the island and Rojo bar and nightclub would be ceasing trading.

The then-Jersey Hospitality Association CEO Marcus Calvani said the island was living through a time of "sky-rocketing costs for hospitality and challenges with recruitment, shipping and staff accommodation" and said he was "very worried about what's round the corner".

The application said that the new clinic, if approved, would aim to offer a "holistic approach to sport and health will provide services that are beneficial to the whole community".