From £1,000 to £4,000 a week: Shocking increase in cost to run dairy's electric floats
A Black Country dairy business has seen the cost of running its fleet of electric milk floats rocket from £1,000 a week to a whopping £4,000.
Following the pandemic and cost of living crises, many businesses have already faced considerable hurdles, with rising energy joining the long list of factors hitting profits.
Brigstock Dairies is a private family business which has delivered fresh milk using its all-electric fleet of milk floats in Kingswinford for 50 years.
The business has seen its weekly running costs rocket from £1,000 to £4,000 this year.
Director Andrew Brigstock said: “We are big believers in running an environmentally-friendly service, in everything we do. Our floats have all the newest technology to make them as efficient as possible.
“I don’t want our customers to get the wrong impression that we will stop delivering, we are here for the long run, but it is tough.
“We are determined to keep offering our doorstep delivery service, elderly people really rely on us.
"We need some certainty, we need some help from the Government. Is there a cap coming for business as well as households? We just don’t know."
Mr Brigstock was among business leaders in the West Midlands calling for the Government to set out what help will be made available for businesses.
His calls for certainty come as sources suggest the much anticipated "fiscal event" to set out Government funding for a set of major interventions in the cost-of-living crisis will be delivered by the Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, next Friday.
Politics as normal has been largely put on hold during the 10-day period of mourning for the Queen, which lasts until her funeral on Monday.
