Former rugby league player launches food delivery business after shutting Yorkshire Dales pub due to high energy prices

Former rugby league player-turned businessman Andy Gascoigne and his wife, Mandy, who bought The Farmers Arms at Muker in September 2020, have run the pub together for the last two years. However, they said they have been forced to close it for the winter because they can’t afford the escalating electricity bills.

Mr Gascoigne said: “We thought we’d signed up to a fixed rate contract for our electricity but we’re on a variable contract paying 75 pence a kilowatt. We’ve had three price increases that we’ve been unable to stop and we’ve had lots of issues with the provider around billing.

“The contract doesn’t expire until October 2023 and the discount passed on to us from the government only takes 12 pence per kilowatt off the bill.”

To save energy, the couple changed the fryers in the kitchen from electric to propane gas and reduced the pub’s opening hours but Mr Gascoigne said it wasn’t enough.

“Our electricity costs are ridiculously high. We managed to get the bill down to £1,500 a month by opening four days a week but we’re getting into winter and footfall has fallen away because we rely a lot on tourists and day trippers,” he said.

He added: “Nobody wants to shut their business but we were just working to give the energy company a fortune and we can’t afford to do that any more.”

Instead, the couple decided to set up a delivery service - farmerskitchen.co.uk - providing Mrs Gascoigne’s gastro pub food delivered to people’s homes.

The new venture, which launched this week, uses a delivery company to deliver her frozen homemade dishes to customers all over the UK.

Mrs Gascoigne has made an accompanying YouTube video for each dish showing customers exactly how to plate up the dishes, which include lamb shank, chicken buna masala and seafood lasagne.

“We’re not celebrity chefs but we want to show you how to plate up the dish to serve to your friends and family,” said Mr Gascoigne.

“Mandy’s got a good reputation here. She keeps the pub tables full for dining because the food’s really good and everybody loves to come.”

The website also sells a range of gin and tonics and beer from Mr Gascoigne’s microbrewery.

The Farmers Arms and Farmers Kitchen are the latest in a line of hospitality business ventures Mr Gascoigne has taken on since his rugby league career in the 1980s and 90s.

The self-taught brewer bought an old greengrocer shop in Haworth, West Yorkshire, to set up the Haworth Steam Brewery and later branched out into gin distilling.

When they first bought The Farmers Arms they struggled to recruit staff in Swaledale and relied on volunteers to keep the pub open. They were also badly affected by lockdowns and social distancing measures.

Last year, the couple put the pub on the market for £575,000 for the freehold. Earlier this year, they reduced the price of the pub, which has owners’ accommodation and a separate barn with a studio/holiday flat, to £495,000.

Mr Gascoigne said the local council has now made the pub an asset of community value, meaning it has to stay as a pub.

“We are now awaiting whether the local community wants to put a bid together to buy the pub,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”