Brighton-based Infinity Foods Kitchen, located in Gardner Street, shut its doors for the last time on Sunday 25 August, having opened in the North Laine area of the city back in 1998.
In a statement, Infinity Foods Cooperative explained the difficult decision to shut the organic vegetarian café: “Running a kitchen (café) in Brighton & Hove is a very competitive market and when doing this as ethically as we can it can be difficult. Infinity Foods shop have financially supported the running costs of the café, but this is no longer sustainable. As a workers’ cooperative, it is important for us to pay staff well and with good sociable working hours. Using organic ingredients meant we couldn’t always be competitive on price despite our efforts to make food at affordable prices and this made the costs of running the kitchen very high.”
Infinity Foods shop have financially supported the running costs of the café, but this is no longer sustainable.
The statement added that the co-op has offered redundancy pay to all kitchen staff regardless of how long they have worked there and also offered alternative positions within the co-op.
A post on its Facebook page thanked all its loyal customers, adding: “A special thank you to the numerous people that have worked at Infinity Foods Kitchen and for their dedication in providing the residents and visitors of Brighton & Hove with fresh organic food.”
