Crunch puts bite on city's oldest deli
Reported in The Coventry Telegraph, 9 January 2009)
Coventry’s oldest delicatessen has closed after more than 50 years in the city as the financial downturn continues to hit businesses across the city. Alma, in Corporation Street, city centre, was also a popular coffee bar and a focal point for the city’s Polish community.
Alex Ignatovic took over the family-run business when it moved to Corporation Street almost 10 years ago from the upper level of the lower precinct. It had been managed there for 27 years by Alex’s mum, Aniela and her husband before they retired.
Last week the business went into liquidation following poor trading results in 2008. Alma was started by Wilhelm Rozycki during the Second World War when he toured army bases and refugee camps across Coventry and Warwickshire.
The first shop was based in Alma Street, Hillfields, where it sold pork fat, gherkins and sauerkraut to home sick Poles. The food was also popular with Coventry’s growing Italian, Ukrainian and Yugoslavian populations.
Brett Barton, Licensed Insolvency Practitioner of Cranfield Business Recovery, based in Hill Top, city centre, said: “Its regrettable that the director was faced with the decision to close the shop and place the company into liquidation. However, the turnover has significantly dropped in 2008 as a result of less people coming into the store. It was not financially economical to continue and the shop will be handed back to the landlord as part of the liquidation process.
“The director has stated that consumer spending had dropped considerably and it couldn’t continue without custom.”
