A TOWN centre restaurant has appealed on social media for help after fears falling sales could spell the end of the road for the business.

The boss of Hugo’s Mexican Bar and Eatery in Northgate, Blackburn, has been candidly asking customers on Facebook how they could improve their service so they can continue trading.

Owner David Wilcock said: “Our new venue has been open almost a year now but unfortunately we don’t have enough custom to stay open beyond March. What are we doing wrong?

“Please give us some feedback. We want 2019 to be our year. We don’t want to close but need more custom.”

Hugo’s opened in Northgate in January 2018, after a highly successful 15 months serving hungry customers inside Blackburn Market.

But after poor sales in the final quarter of 2018, and a New Year’s Eve that saw the bar empty after 10pm, Mr Wilcock said it was time to take on board consumer needs and overhaul their approach.

Mr Wilcock, 35, said: “We decided to move to our own shop because we were doing so well on the market, and I wanted to do something to help revitalise Blackburn town centre and provide people with something a little different, similar to places like Manchester.

“Lunchtime trade is booming in Blackburn and when we were in the market we reaped the benefits of that and our feedback was excellent. However, since moving to our new location, passing trade has dropped off.

“What we’ve realised is that people sometimes don’t want to venture out of The Mall, and when the weather is bad, people don’t want to leave the office at all. Also, there’s a lot of people who don’t have time to come further into town for their lunch, and we need to cater for that.”

Mr Wilcock said if Hugo’s closed it would be another blow to the high street at a time when independent businesses are closing as they fail to keep up with the competition of online trade.

Instead, he’s planning to use customer suggestions to try to garner more trade, overhaul the shopfront and review the evening menu.

He also wants to make it clear to customers that Hugo’s is not just a bar or a restaurant, but both.

He said: “I spend a lot of time in Manchester and they have loads of places like Hugo’s that do really well. Unfortunately, Blackburn seems to be about five years behind and maybe not quite ready for something like that.

“We’ve decided to take on board what our customers have said and are going to look at launching on Just Eat, offering more delivery options, introducing more halal, gluten free and vegan options, and offering town centre workers some sort of discount scheme."

“We’re going to take menus and samples into the Cathedral Square office block and offer free lunches for businesses around the town on certain days of the week and really push our presence.

“We know it’s not going to be easy but we don’t want this business to fail and we don’t want the high street to fail. Blackburn needs a new lease of life and we want to be part of that, we want to be there to help make Blackburn better.”