The owner of an Inverness takeaway has been forced to cut opening hours in order to save her business.
Jenny Whyte, who runs Grazey Days, currently opens the Shore Street premises five days a week.
However, with rising costs and the impact it’s having on the other parts of her business, she has made the decision to only open its doors on Friday.
Grazey Days offers outdoor catering, a hot food van and delivery services as well as its takeaway.
Ms Whyte started the business almost four years ago with just £250 in her bank account.
‘I thought I had failed and let everyone down’
Ms Whyte has spent weeks crying over her difficult decision, thinking she would have to shut the shop altogether, and saw herself as a failure.
The takeaway opened in 2021 as part of expansion plans for the business.
She said: “Grazey Days is what I started — for me closing showed it as a massive failure.
“I’ve been working 70-80 hours a week for almost four years now and just battling on as if it’s normal.
“It never really crossed me there may be an issue until I was speaking to my parents and my dad told said he was worried about me.
“That’s when it really hit me and I knew I needed to take a step back and have a proper look at things.
“I’ve spent weeks crying over the decision, I didn’t want to let people down.”
Ms Whyte has four staff and said none of them will lose any hours due to the changes as they will focus on the buffets and outdoor catering.
She believes taking a step back and looking at the business has allowed her to see it from a better perspective.
Ms Whyte added: “I stand back now knowing I need to go in a different direction in order to survive and grow.
“To say I started this by myself with just £250 in my bank account and not borrow a penny along the way — I’m extremely proud.
“I feel what I’ve achieved is insane and I will keep battling on, my customers can’t get rid of me that easy.”
Grazey Days takeaway isn’t making money, says boss
Ms Whyte said the takeaway has been “breaking even at best” but has also seen her miss out on midweek gigs due to the lack of time available.
She said: “As a business, I need to survive and focus on what is making me money.
“The van and outside catering make me money. Unfortunately, the takeaway doesn’t.
“I was going to close it completely, but we’ve built up such a loyal customer base so that wouldn’t be fair.”
Ms Whyte also believes times are as tough as ever for small businesses at the moment.
She added: “The minimum wage has gone up by almost a pound an hour, which is massive for businesses our size.
“Everything else is rising too, packaging, electricity, you name it. There’s only so much we can put our margins up.
“What we’re going to see is if a lot of similar sized businesses to ourselves don’t make any changes, it won’t be a happy ending.”
Staff support
Ms Whyte said conversations with her team at Grazey Days takeaway have helped in making the decisions.
She said: “I sat my staff down and spoke to them to let them know what I was thinking.
“They were so helpful and even said if they did end up losing a couple of hours it didn’t matter as long as me and the business survived.
“Without them, and their support over this move, I’d have packed it in months ago.”
Ms Whyte said as the focus changes back to outdoor catering and its hot food van, it has already won a new contract.
She added: “Belladrum has approached me to cater for them this year which is a really huge deal.
“Without our recent rethink we probably would’ve had to say no, so for me it shows why change has to happen.”
The new changes at the business will take place from May 6.
Conversation