A popular bakery chain famous for its iconic treat will close its doors in Melbourne due to soaring business costs.
Black Star Pastry will close all three of its Melbourne stores – in the CBD, St Kilda and Chadstone – on Sunday.
The eatery took to social media to indicate that the difficult decision was made because it was no longer feasible to run the businesses in Victoria.
‘Rising costs, a tough economic climate and an industry-wide staffing shortage have forced us to consolidate our team and we will shift our focus to our original home of Sydney,’ the post read.
‘For five years, our team have poured their hearts, passion, and creativity into the making of each cake, pastry and coffee served across our stores.’
The business thanked customers for supporting the bakery in Melbourne after it first opened up at the Prince Hotel, in St Kilda, in 2019.
The bakery quickly became popular thanks to its world-famous strawberry watermelon cake.
‘We had a beautiful journey and many great friendships here and hope to see you one day, soon,’ the post ended.
The move doesn’t affect its stores in Sydney, which will ‘continue operating as normal’.
Black Star Pastry has stores in the city, Newtown, Rosebery and Chatswood.
The business has also opened up pop-up stores in Burwood and Broadway.
Melbourne fans were heartbroken to hear about the closures.
‘This is so sad! Your cakes and sweets are amazing, this is a sad loss for Melbourne,’ one customer wrote.
Another woman added: ‘Thanks for bringing amazing bloody cakes to us! Big loss to our state!’
A third commented: ‘This is devastating news! Hope you can consider returning to Melbourne when things look up!
Black Star Pastry sells more than one million slices of their original cakes every year.
The bakery was first established in Newtown in 2008 by renowned pastry chef Christopher The, who invented the strawberry watermelon cake.
The restaurant soon caught the eye of Louis Li, the founder of Victorian luxury accommodation company Jackalope Hotel group.
Mr Li was so impressed by the cake that he decided to take over the business after becoming majority shareholder in 2018.
Th hospitality sector in is continuing to struggle due to inflation and consecutive interest rate rises.
Leading n business analysis company CreditorWatch has forecast that one in 13 hospitality businesses will fail in the coming year.
CreditorWatch chief executive Patrick Coghlan warned conditions will get worse for businesses in the hospitality sector before they get better.
‘The outlook for hospitality businesses is not likely to improve until we see a lift in consumer spending,’ Mr Coghlan said in a statement.
‘That is not going to happen until the impacts of one or two rate cuts filter through to households. We don’t anticipate that being felt until at least the second half of next year.’