Larkin Cen's Woky Ko shutters two sites amid 'unviable price pressures'
In a statement posted to Instagram, Cen, who launched his first Woky Ko site in 2016 at Cargo, said the decision meant staff across the two sites would be made redundant, but didn't confirm how many jobs would be lost.
The modern Asian group's remaining site at St Nicks Market will continue to operate.
"It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we will be closing our Woky Ko Queens Road and Cargo," Cen said.
"With fantastic commitment and hard work from the Woky Ko team, we managed to stay open throughout the main outbreak of Covid, creating a delivery service for our loyal customers. Unfortunately, over the last year, increasing costs, staffing shortages and wage pressure impacted the viability of these two parts of the businesses.
"Further Covid related closures totalled over 200 days across all our sites and now on top of that we are experiencing a very substantial drop in sales at Wapping Wharf due to the main footbridge being closed for prolonged works. The price pressure on our takeaway orders caused by the economic squeeze, has meant that both locations are no longer viable."
Cen also asked that if any other restaurants have vacancies, they get in touch so he can share them with the team.
"We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for supporting Woky Ko over the years at Cargo and Queens Road and to our suppliers and supporters who kept us going throughout the pandemic.
"Our St Nicks Market operation will remain open and will be our cornerstone as we look to regroup and stabilise the business."
Spiralling inflation and the cost of living crisis has forced hospitality firms across the country to scale back operations and, in many instances, close sites permanently.
Earlier this week, Oxfordshire restaurant Crockers Henley permanently closed, with owner Luke Garnsworthy blaming the 'bleak economic outlook'; while earlier in the summer, Pino, the sister restaurant to the highly-regarded Il Portico in London's Kensington, shut its doors as a result of rising costs.
The latest Hospitality Market Monitor from CGA and AlixPartners, publish last week, revealed that Britain’s licensed sector saw a net decline of one closure every hour in the third quarter of 2022.
It showed there were just under 104,000 licensed premises at the end of September 2022 — a net drop of 2,230 since June, which represents an average of just over 24 closures a day, or more than 150 per week.
This latest decline leaves the licensed market with 11,426 (or -9.9%) fewer sites than March 2020.
