Andy Munns
Alex and Maria, the owners of Pizza Venti on Fisherton Street, have posted on social media stating they can’t continue with the restaurant.
The eatery is listed as number 1 on several websites for pizza in Salisbury, but still, the couple have been unable to make the business work.
They state that, in some ways, they have been naive and made mistakes but are proud of what they have achieved.
Their statement on Facebook said, “We’ve been misled when we took over the building and instead of doing full refurbishment, we ended up destroying our family budget on repairs which we weren’t made aware of. The old owners have knocked down their company, and we remained in a property with plenty of issues.
“Along this couple of years, we have invested in a brand new smoke evacuation system, a brand new fire system done according to the law, a heating system for the building and a lot of small repairs which costed enough to put us in a challenging situation before we even open.
“Because we believed so much in what we wanted to achieve with the business and in the quality of our products and services, we were sure that if we do many sacrifices, we will come out stronger and we will overcome all our challenges. We have become number 1 in Salisbury, both TripAdvisor and Google, and we still are.
“We reopened in January with many hopes, we tried finding a partner to invest further in the company and get that much needed cash flow to be able to stay on top of things, but we failed, as well.
“Due to health issues in the family, in January, I returned next to my parents to be the son I wasn’t for 10 years that I’ve spent in Salisbury. That’s a sacrifice many foreigners do.
“Maria has been trying to revive the company along with the team and the new Chef, but it is hard to keep up with everything, plus being apart, made it even more difficult. Inconsistency in business never helped.
“Me and Maria have put a lot of love, hope, work, money and feelings in what Pizza Venti represents. We wouldn’t want to see it going down the hill, reason why we are open to SELL the business all together or the brand separately. For more details, please contact us.”
The couple haven’t said when the restaurant will close, saying they will keep their customers informed of that.
