A popular post office, café and deli has been listed for sale, after the owners said they have faced 'challenge after challenge'.

The Aldbourne post office, deli and café in Marlborough, owned by Tessa and Eddie Berisha, is a lifeline to the local community.

Tessa and Eddie took over the business at the height of the Covid pandemic and have faced many challenges - from multiple lockdowns, the cost of living crisis and flooding earlier this year. 

Tessa said: “What we thought we would be doing is not what we have ended up doing, we’ve had to pivot and change every aspect of business and what we thought we might achieve in the years we’ve been here, we haven’t been able to with the way the economy is.”

They had planned to sell their own frozen food and offer evening meals, but after racking up a £3000 electric bill in one month, they realised they would be making a loss.  

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Another challenge they have faced is staffing, especially after Covid. 

“It’s sort of been one thing after another," Tessa said.

"It’s nearly impossible now to access the village because we’re rural and all the bus services have been cut since Covid.

"We can’t get any apprentices from local colleges anymore because they just can’t get here.

Changing spending habits as a result of the cost of living crisis also means fewer people are using the village shop or spending their money at the café.

Tessa said: “The economy has just tanked completely and really left people with little money to play around with, so they’re really picking and choosing.

"It’s a really competitive market now and you can’t always rely on village support as some of them can’t afford it either.

"It’s not just me, it’s everyone who is running small businesses at the minute, at least we have that, we do get to sympathise with other people locally. Running a small business in the current climate is very difficult.”

Flooding in January has been the most recent concern for the couple, with costly repairs, closure and the threat of more flooding next winter.

The business has been listed as a community asset and Tessa, who was born and raised in the village, was taught by her father to cherish community spirit.

She added: “We do have a lot of community support here and if everyone sees it as an asset, it’s important to treat it as such and join the community we’ve built here. I appreciate times are tough and perhaps supermarkets can give people much better prices than I can, but we do things that aren’t available from your local supermarket.

"We offer community support that is invaluable. We offer prescriptions here and go round vulnerable people’s houses to deliver shopping and if we weren’t here that would really impact people in ways we haven’t even thought about.”

Since listing the business for sale, Tessa says her family have received even more support from the village, which has given them a ‘renewed vigour to keep plugging away.’