- Jersey Horse business has closed after three months
- Jimmy the horse had been a popular site at Parade Gardens
- The business was launched in April
ISLANDERS will no longer be greeted by Jimmy the horse at Parade Gardens after the organisers of a town carriage-ride service announced that they have ‘thrown in the towel’.
Jersey Horse was launched in April this year by St Clement couple Phil and Jenny Renouf and their 19-year-old daughter Phoebe.
However, it was announced last week on the company’s Facebook page that Jimmy the Irish cob horse would no longer be doing the carriage rides, with many Islanders commenting to express their disappointment.
In a statement on Facebook, Jersey Horse said: ‘Too few people wanted to pay for the carriage rides at the price we needed to charge.
‘We were prepared to go without wages in order to establish the business and had resources to support the family for several months.
‘However, we did rely on a level of business that would at least cover other costs.
‘We have entered a process of constant evaluation from our very first day and so decisions had already been made that 25 per cent profit would need to be achieved by the end of July and 50 per cent achieved in August to give us a chance to trade next year.
Mr Renouf first came up with the idea for the horse and carriage rides around town more than 20 years ago after seeing similar businesses operating all over the world.
The carriage rides, which started from Parade Gardens, operated from 10 am to 4 pm from Monday to Saturday at an introductory cost of £30 for a group of five people.
It was hoped that the price could be increased to £40 per group during the summer months.
However, prices were lowered further to £25 on certain promotional days to try to attract more customers.
Mr Renouf left his full-time managerial job at a garden centre to pursue the carriage ride business.
However, he said on the Jersey Horse Facebook page that he was now ‘looking for a job’.
