AFTER seven years serving coffees to Chelmsford commuters, Rennie and Bobbie Manning will soon be shutting up shop on the London-bound platform one after Greater Anglia "in their infinite wisdom" turned down a bid to renew their lease.
The husband and wife team, who run coffee shop The Froth On Top at the station on Duke Street, believe the decision by Abellio Greater Anglia to turn down their tender reflects a preference for big business, rather than independent traders.
And they made their feelings clear on a sign that was posted outside the cafe informing their loyal customers of the decision.
"It is with deep sadness and regret that we have to announce that Abellio Greater Anglia in their infinite wisdom have decided not to renew our lease here at Chelmsford station, and that we will be vacating the premises sometime within the next few months," it reads.
"We tried our hardest to secure a new lease to carry on operating at the station but Abellio doesn't seem to like independent local businesses and seems to think big national companies are the way forward."
Although the notice has now been removed "to avoid disruption", father-of-three Rennie still feels aggrieved at the tendering process that saw him and wife lose out to an unknown competitor.
"We put an e-mail address at the bottom for people to get in touch with Greater Anglia, so it has received lots of complaints from our customers," he told the Chronicle.
"I just think the decision was financial, they seem to like big businesses with big chequebooks as opposed to independent ones. "What we feel is that we bring to the station a personal service, people come in not just for a coffee but to have a chat . We're friends with our customers."
As part of their bid to run the service for another seven years the Chelmsford couple were willing to invest around £40,000 in improving the cafe, but it wasn't enough to impress the franchise, which has now told Rennie and Bobbie they should expect to vacate the premises around the end of June.
An Abellio Greater Anglia spokesperson said: "We have conducted a full and proper tendering process for the retail premises located on the station platform at Chelmsford station.
"In this instance, the existing tenant has been unsuccessful in re-bidding, but we are grateful for their work over the years and we wish them well in the future.
"We have many independent retail partners who operate from our stations and our policy in letting any new tenancy is to ensure we follow a proper competitive process and existing tenants are always given the opportunity to tender."
