A Welsh restaurant has handed back its Michelin star, with the owners saying they rejected the award because they wanted to focus on putting family first.

Stephane Borie, Sarah Francis and Kathryn Francis, owners of the Checkers restaurant in Montgomery, Powys, announced they had returned the coveted star rating – regarded as the pinnacle for any restaurant – ahead of publication of the 2019 edition of the Michelin Guide on 1 October.

Sarah Francis and Borie, her partner, have three young children while Kathryn, Sarah’s sister, has two.

“I don’t know how we’ve done it for all these years, juggling the kids with working split shifts and late hours,” said Sarah Francis.

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“It has been a joy to have the star and the most amazing news when we got it. It was great for trade and brilliant for the town. But more for us, it’s about taking the business in a new direction and putting our family first. It means we can work in the day and have our evenings to ourselves.”

The restaurant will relaunch in November as Checkers Pantry, and will open for breakfast and lunch with drinks and cakes available throughout the day. Borie will continue to cook at the Checkers but also plans to expand his culinary portfolio working for private clients across Europe.

The Checkers first appeared in the Michelin Guide in 2011.

Sarah Francis said: “We’ve loved getting it, loved keeping it and were always nervous every year as to whether we were going to be in the guide. So to give it back was a big decision but ultimately the right one.”

A top French restaurant, Le Suquet, withdrew from the listings last year, having held a three-star rating for nearly two decades. The chef Sébastien Bras said he no longer wanted to cook at his restaurant under the “huge pressure” of being judged by the inspectors. Michelin said it was the first time a French chef had asked to be dropped from its guide in this way.

In September, the British celebrity chef Marco Pierre White reportedly said he did not want to give Michelin guide inspectors permission to visit his new restaurant in Singapore.

Simon Wright, a restaurateur, food writer and former AA food guide editor, said decisions such as that made by the Checkers were “often a reflection of the enormous pressure and additional expectation that comes with a Michelin star”.

He said: “People can have preconceived ideas which are sometimes not matched by the style of the restaurants.”

The latest list of entrants to the UK and Ireland Michelin Guide will be announced on Monday, celebrating the best restaurants across the two countries.