Freehold fish & chip shop with 55 cover restaurant potential, Bexhill on Sea

Key features

• Freehold included — rare opportunity to own the property outright
• 45-year family tenure; offered due to retirement
• £3,000 average weekly sales on deliberately limited five-day trading
• 55-cover restaurant to the rear — not trading since Covid, ready to reinstate
• Mid-parade position on road leading directly to the seafront

About this business

A deceptively spacious lock-up shop that has been in the same family for 45 years, this well-established fish and chip shop in Bexhill-on-Sea is now offered for sale due to the owner's retirement. The business currently trades just five days a week on limited hours, generating average weekly sales of £3,000 — a figure with clear room to grow through extended openings and the reinstatement of a 55-cover restaurant that has stood dormant since Covid. The freehold is included in the sale, offering a buyer both a trading business and a property asset in a Sussex coastal town with strong year-round footfall and a summer uplift from visiting trade.

Trading figures

The owner reports average weekly sales of £3,000 trading across five days on limited openings, closing no later than 8.00 pm. Approximately 80% of turnover is counter trade, with the balance fulfilled via deliveries using the owner's own drivers.

Trading hours

Tuesday and Wednesday 4.00 pm to 8.00 pm; Thursday through to Saturday 12.00 noon to 8.00 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday. The current schedule reflects the owner's preference for a limited working week, leaving meaningful scope for a new operator to extend hours.

Business premises

Mid-parade premises with a smart, fully glazed shopfront, a full-width spotlit fascia and twin entrance doors. The front takeaway section is fitted with quarry tiled flooring, wood-panelled and beamed walls, hanging lighting and ceiling fans. The frying bay features a lowered ceiling with shelving and a small cooking area served by an overhead extractor, leading onto useful work surfaces. A corridor opens into a large, well-fitted tiled preparation area with a stainless steel-clad potato works and double sink, plus stair access to first-floor washroom facilities. To the rear sits the former 55-cover restaurant — a substantial space that has not been in use since Covid but is ready to be brought back into service.

Trade equipment

The business includes a 3-pan Preston & Thomas counter range, numerous fridges and freezers, a digital till, microwave oven, fish keeper, grill, dishwasher, chipper, peeler and other items associated with the trade.

Trading position

The shop occupies a firmly established mid-parade position on a road that leads directly to the seafront, with the main town centre and railway station close by. The surrounding area has a well-populated settled community providing reliable year-round trade, supplemented by a seasonal uplift as visitors come to this charming Sussex coastal town each summer.

Special remarks

With 45 years of family ownership behind it and a freehold title included, this is an inherently stable proposition being offered to the market for straightforward retirement reasons rather than any trading difficulty. The current owner has deliberately kept hours modest to suit his lifestyle; a buyer willing to trade the full week and reopen the restaurant would be acquiring a business with considerably more headroom than the present turnover suggests.