Cheltenham hospitality group TURF to close after “Mission Accomplished”

TURF - the Cheltenham collective of independent hospitality businesses has announced its decision to close on the 30th April. The decision is a result of a TURF strategic committee review which found it had achieved its mission of bringing the town’s independent hospitality businesses closer together.

TURF was established during the height of the pandemic in March 2020, by a few Cheltenham hospitality sector owner-operators. TURF was founded on the belief that the businesses’ greatest strength was their individual spirit and enterprise. The group aimed to support the sector and forge links between businesses, to share best practices and expertise.

Pak Wai Hung owner of 288 Bar & Wok and one of the founding Voluntary Directors, commented, “The first duty of any membership organisation is to regularly review it’s purpose and mission to ensure that it is delivering value for members.

"We are immensely proud of what TURF has achieved and the strength of the links that have been formed between the town’s independent hospitality businesses through our activities. This is exactly what we set out to achieve when we first founded TURF. We were also mindful that the challenges currently facing the sector were going to make it difficult for owner-operators to attend the kind of events we had been organising in the past. Taking this all into consideration my fellow committee members and I took the decision to wind up TURF now”.

At its peak, TURF had just over 45 members. As well as bringing independent hospitality business owners together it has strengthened their links with CBC, Cheltenham BID and Marketing Cheltenham. TURF was also behind the highly successful “Very Very First Auction” in 2021 and The Jubilunch in 2022.

David Orme, owner of The Find and Secretary of TURF commented, “The committee decided that TURF had served its purpose and that the town’s independent hospitality businesses were all now back working full time - and doing so in a more connected collaborative manner. I think we all recognise that we have friendships now that we never had before. Our friendship group will continue it is just that the formal membership fees will cease”.

The timing of the winding up is such that all members will have received a full year’s membership since their last fee payment. The residual balance of funds is still being determined but these will be donated to Springbank Food/Cafe which TURF members have supported previously.

Heath Gunter, Chief Executive of the Cheltenham Business Improvement District commented. “I have found working with TURF to be very beneficial and I think they are to be congratulated on what they have achieved in a challenging and turbulent time for the hospitality sector. I look forward to continuing to work with the businesses that the BID have forged links with and would like to thank all the Volunteer Directors for their time and efforts”.