John Forte and his businesses

BUSINESS…..

My Father bought his first fish and chip shop soon after being forced to leave the Family Ice-cream and restaurant business when the row of Family shops in South Street Exeter were destroyed during the blitz. 

He bought his first Fish and Chip in Exwick rd St Thomas. This was immediately after the War and the business was very successful. My Fathers sold the fish and chip shop in Exwick road for a large profit, and he bought another business near Burnthouse lane at St Lloy’s Exeter. This was a large grocery store.  My father was an astute businessman who was able not only able to read the current market situation but had an ability to look ahead as well.  He made the store into another success. 
My father appreciated that rationing was about to end and the privileges of owning a grocery shop would change.  He negotiated with the Co-op who were looking for premises and sold his business to them, this my Fathers way forward in business from then on. I remember my father in his white coat in the shop smiling, happy as a sand boy. Keeping the customers amused with his jokes while watching the cash register, Whistling through his teeth, rippling a couple of pennies through his fingers to make a Rat-A-tat sound like a drummer.  Looking people straight in the eye, his hair brushed straight back, his little round glasses with great thick lenses, his very bristly chin, with which he used to torment me by rubbing his bristles on my face, and making me scream for him to stop. 

 A view of the harbour at Torquay.              Looking across the harbour there is a row of shops.  Our icecream parlour and restaurant occupied two of the buildings in the middle of the row.

Following this, my father bought, (in partnership with his brother Uncle Henry), several adjoining shops on the harbour side in Vaughan Parade Torquay.  They successfully ran the business together as an Ice Cream Parlour and restaurant for several years from about 1948 until the early fifties.

Fish and chip shops were where my Father had begun his successful independence in business, and this was to which he returned before he died (aged only 52) when I was just 15 years old.  He purchased a wet fish and chip shop in North Street Exeter from George Smith and very soon had one of the busiest eating-places in Exeter.

The Wet fish shop in North street was previously a complete disaster as a business.  George Smith was an old man who worked hard at getting a living and often got things wrong.  He had a wet fish slab in the front window of the shop and there, curled up asleep amidst the fillets of cod was a large Black cat.   I ask you!

An Offer.............My Father had become very ill and was at home in bed (the early signs of the cancer that was to kill him perhaps) he had been asked to entertain two visitors.   My father asked me to remain in the room while these men visited him at his bedside.   My father instructed me that I was to remain silent and listen carefully to what these men had to say. 

The men, it turned out were “The Berni Brothers”  they had a restaurant tea rooms in North Street Exeter. They had learnt that my father intended to buy out George Smiths Fish Shop and open a Fish and chip shop and Restaurant right opposite them. 
They proposed to my father that they would pay him Two hundred pounds not to open the Fish and Chip shop and Restaurant.  Two Hundred pounds was a considerable sum of money in those hard days.  My father listened attentatively and patiently as the men spoke; he explained to them that he intended to open his shop.  The two men then raised their offer and said that this was their final offer.  My father said that both businesses would prosper, and more especially so if North street became known as the eating place in Exeter. My father felt that the businesses were complimentary and should not conflict as the menus were entirely different.  However, later my Father told me he thought the real reason was that he would indeed take business away from them, and they did not want a smelly fish and Chip shop near them.
After work each day my father would come home staggering from the pain in his feet and legs. His shoes had metal plates to support his fallen arches;   Getting up early every morning to prepare the fish and potatoes for the day  had made him quite ill,.  After peeling several hundredweight of potatoes, he would begin the fish preparation by beheading, gutting, filleting and cutting the fish into portions ready for frying. 

Then he would make the batter (the success of the business depended upon the crispness of the batter).  My Fathers usual working day could be up to 18 hours long. When my father got home at night, Teresa and I used to take off his shoes and socks and bring him a basin of warm water to wash and ease his feet, and then we would gently wash his feet and dry them.  We loved him so.  Then we would sit on his lap, until it was time for him to have something to eat or it was time for us to go to bed

My father used to smoke about 40 Players medium Navy cut cigarettes everyday, this, and the long hours of work began to take its toll on his health.  He coughed a lot and sometimes there would be traces of blood on his handkerchief.  He still went on working very long hours to earn as much money as he could, he still had to pay the large Doctors bills for Mums treatment for Tuberculosis at Montana Hall in Switzerland.