Ex-Portsmouth, Leeds and Reading keeper Jamie Ashdown: Coronavirus destroyed my successful business, there was nothing I could do

The former Pompey keeper was forced to close his cafe in August – just 10 months after relocating to a Basingstoke business centre.

Following the end of his football career, Ashdown turned his hand to serving coffee and making bacon sandwiches in a thriving Camberley-based enterprise.

Such was its success over four years, he expanded his Brewpoint cafe in October 2019 by moving to bigger premises.

However, despite attempts to diversify into home fuels, the former Leeds and Reading man had to call it quits three months ago.

SEE ALSO: Ashdown: My Pompey trial was a waste of time, Paul Cook wouldn't even look at me

Now the 39-year-old helps out in his dad’s hardware shop in Crowthorne, Berkshire, while continuing work as goalkeeping coach for Ascot United.

He told The News: ‘I lost my coffee shop this year. I plunged quite a lot of money into that, it’s all gone now. Coronavirus destroyed it.

‘For four years I had a cafe in Camberley, it was doing great, but I wanted something bigger and better. There really wasn’t anywhere to grow, so I risked it.

‘I decided to get a place in Basingstoke on a trading estate. It was bigger, with massive doors going out into the car park and in quite a good location – but I just didn’t get a chance.

‘I got there in October and it took a little while to get going. January and February were a little quiet and then March hit. There’s nothing you can do.

‘It depends how long you have been established and if you are willing to wait. With an old-fashioned pub, you are not going to leave it, you’re hopefully going to sit around and wait for it to come back again.

‘My cafe wasn’t really that established in Basingstoke, it didn’t have the customer base for me to think “I’ll hold on. If I wait a few months then everyone will come back”.

‘After lockdown, I went back and for the first week-and-a-half it was brutal. I was earning £20-30 a day. There was nobody around.

‘I decided to put another business next to it, so introduced home fuels, selling BBQ stuff, supplies for woodfire stoves and chimineas. I got a bit of stock in for that and made it all look nice.

‘It was half cafe and half of that – and I ended up selling more of the fuel stuff than coffee.

‘Yet food goes out of date quickly. Each day I was throwing away stuff worth £100, such as coffee, milk, all sorts of things.

‘It went completely dead. I couldn’t wait around any longer and didn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. A grant only goes so far with rent.

‘I shut it in August. It took me a good week to clear it all out, selling the equipment, such as an oven you bought for £4-5,000 which you’re now selling for silly money.

‘With hindsight, I should have stayed in Camberley and I would have been fine. But there you go.

‘I have learnt some life lessons that if you throw money at it, it doesn’t work out.

‘Now I’m working for my dad in the hardware store, he’s an essential shop, and you have to wear a mask all day.

‘I’m not really sure what the future holds at the moment, it’s just trying to get by like everyone else.’

Ashdown made 123 appearances during eight seasons at Fratton Park, featuring during the Blues’ Premier League years.

Yet he would play just 16 times in the Football League during the three years after his Pompey departure.

And in August 2015 he retired from football at the age of 34.

He added: ‘I was in an era where people got decent money, but I didn’t play enough games or have that high-enough accolade to get big, big money.

‘Regardless, I enjoyed what I was doing and got paid very well for doing it.

‘Money doesn’t last forever, though, and I made some investments, but that takes years. When it goes down, it’s difficult to get that back again.

‘Whether you have £20m in the bank or a little money, you invest what you’ve got. It’s just luck of the draw sometimes.

‘Some people might lose it. I have known many people that have had millions and millions in the bank and wasted it.

‘I’m now working on trying to be sustainable rather than having a go at too many different things and throwing money at it, especially at this time with what’s going on.‘

MORE: Ashdown: David James could have been among the world’s best – but Kostas Chalkias was worst I ever saw

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