Bridport Takeaway: Fish and chip shop owners call quits as business hits market

After slinging fish and chips for about 50 years, a beachside Tasmanian takeaway has shut its doors as it awaits a prospective buyer to revive the faded favourite.

The owners of Bridport Takeaway, located at 109 Main St, Bridport, have shuttered their business after failing to find a buyer in the five months the business has been on the market. Picture: Google Street View

After slinging fresh, hot fish and chips for about 50 years, a beachside Tasmanian takeaway has shut its doors, with the most recent owners pulling up stumps in retirement.

Bridport Takeaway, owned for approximately six years by local couple John Jacobs and Karen Thomas and located at 109 Main St, shut its doors earlier in May.

Tasmanian Business and Property Sales principal Paul Scott, who is marketing the business, said Bridport Takeaway’s owners had been attempting to sell the business privately before they engaged his office on January 23 this year.

Mr Scott described the business as “quite profitable” – he said Mr Jacobs and Ms Thomas operated it as a “working couple, not working long hours,” and it delivered profits of approximately $100,000 per annum.

However, the business had become somewhat “run down,” he said, although the location couldn’t be beaten.

Tasmanian Business and Property Sales principal Paul Scott. Picture: TBPS

“People go to the beach, they love to buy fish and chips.”

Mr Scott said that Mr Jacobs and Ms Thomas closed the business because they wanted to retire.

“They’d been there long enough, they achieved what they wanted to do, got a bit of capital behind them,” he said.

Mr Scott said his office had fielded approximately 10 queries regarding the business, the last two of which were from locals.

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He said the business, which comes with a full range of plant and equipment, training and an introduction to suppliers and customers, is an attractive proposition for prospective business owners on a budget, as the “great thing about fish and chips is you don’t have to outlay a lot for stock initially”.

A word of caution, though, from a man who knows better than most, having previously owned a fish and chips store himself – Bridport Seafoods – formerly located near the boundary of Waverley and Ravenswood in Launceston’s outer south.

“People think (cooking seafood) is a breeze but it’s not that easy to cook,” Mr Scott said.

Getting the same quality “regularly” is the trick, as chefs must factor in the thickness of the batter

Mr Scott said the site at 109 Main St had been operated as a takeaway store for approximately 50 years, a timeline backed up by long-time Bridport local Jeff Jennings, who moved to the town in the 1970s.

Mr Jennings said the site, prior to it being a takeaway and supermarket (IGA Everyday Bridport adjoins Bridport Takeaway), was a clothing store and, in the 1920s and 1930s, was the site of the town’s post office.

Tasmanian Business and Property Sales is considering any and all offers for Bridport Takeaway.