Bury St Edmunds Infusions Group set to reopen ICE Café after 'traumatic year'

One year after a devastating fire caused more than £1million in damages, a cooking school and restaurant is set to fully reopen.

Infusions Group has survived a ‘traumatic year’ with the pandemic causing pain on top of the fire which damaged their warehouses, ICE cook school, development kitchen, and ICE Café last march.

Now the business, based at the Rougham Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds, has committed to providing services again once restrictions allow.

Sarah Stamp, director of operations of Infusions Group, said: “It has been a traumatic year with the fire and then the pandemic.

“We had to close down for eight weeks and it has taken a long time to sort the insurance as nobody was able to come to the site for a while.

“So we were really excited to get the keys back to the restaurant last week ahead of opening in the middle of May.”

The restaurant suffered smoke damage but has been repaired and will be able to serve up a new range of meals to customers once restrictions ease. In the meantime, a tasty new menu can be enjoyed in their takeaway service. Infusions has also launched a click and collect grocery service.

The cook school and warehouse suffered greater damage in the fire and are set to be redesigned ahead of reopening in the summer.

Infusions were also put back in their plans to reopen last year as the fire damaged their IT and infrastructure. They were able to partially reopen in June last year and have operated in some capacity since then.

Ms Stamp said: “Our staff has been reduced from 54 to 20 and we have had to completely reshape the business to cope with that.

“The impact on business and reduction in turnover has been devastating - we were hit twice as not only did our café close but the vast majority of our business is supplying the hospitality industry, which was unable to open.”

Infusions is set to be recruiting staff. Visit www.infusionsgroup.com for more details, or email: sarah@infusionsgroup.com

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