A CITY petrol station closed suddenly yesterday.
Cones were placed around MFG Northwick in Ombersley Road.
Its manager said he was feeling ‘helpless’ after claiming he was made to leave the business he has invested in.
Contract Manager at MFG Northwick, Misanthan Paranirupasingam claimed he was told he was losing his role at the petrol station by the franchise company MFG. “For the last three months I have been fighting with them. They didn’t inform me, they just told me to come in this morning. They have locked the office and turned off all the cameras.”
Stock-takers were in the petrol station yesterday.
Mr Paranirupasingam, 25 said he invested £50,000 in the business and does not know if he will get it all back. He says he will have to wait six months to find out. “I’m helpless, I don’t know what to do. They have said they’re going to give me another site, but I have just had promises from the start.”
Mr Paranirupasingam said he has always wanted to have a business as his father used to have one. “I don’t want to let it go. I have started everything on my own.”
The shopkeeper says he has been told someone else will take over the business as it is not making money. They have previously asked him to invest more. “They said ‘you don’t have enough money to invest anymore’. I’m struggling to pay the wages and I’m struggling to pay rent” he said.
Mr Paranirupasingam told the Worcester News that he was told the rent would be reduced to help him pay the costs and wages of the business, but this has not happened: “They have said ‘we will help you out, but they haven’t done anything.”
The manager who has studied engineering claims he was put under pressure to make staff redundant to save money, something he did not want to do: “I had one lady and she was crying saying ‘I don’t want to go I have kids.’”
He said: “I can’t work 24 hours a day seven days a week. I need staff.”
“If there is no local people working there, it shouldn’t be there.”
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. If they give it to someone else, they are going to struggle as well.”
He says competition with the Co-op, just over the road has been a contributing factor in the petrol station struggling.
MFG declined to comment.
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