A FAMILY-run sandwich bar in Hampshire has been turned into a cafe – where customers can buy a cup of tea or coffee for just £1.

Lai Ping has turned her old baguette and sandwich takeaway in Totton into a cafe where everything  from cups of tea and coffee to slices of pizza and cake costs £1 per item.

The idea for Poundtry came about after she saw that similar cafes in the north of the country, where some of the poorest communities blighted by the recession, have become profitable businesses.

Lai thought the idea could work here in Hampshire.

She said: “The south hasn’t got anything like this. It’s a new concept and I hope that the south is ready for this. We thought we would give it a go.

“We think that if there’s a bargain to be had people would hopefully go for it like they have done for pound shops which have done well even in affluent areas.”

Lai employs two other members of staff, Jayne Jones and Angie Lavelle, and gets help from her husband George and her daughters, Hayley, Justine and Sarah.

But she said she needed customers to come in order to meet the overheads.

She said: “It all depends on the numbers now. We won’t meet the costs unless we have people coming in. We have plenty of regular customers but we hope to get some new ones too.”