The owner of a vegan doughnut shop near Bristol Temple Meads says that economic uncertainty, high inflation and soaring rents mean that her business currently has "no choice but to keep pushing through”.
Kay Stanley sells an array of vegan doughnuts, bagels and locally roasted coffee from her bright, colourful café, Future Doughnuts, tucked underneath the arches on Oxford Street. Last week, in response to the closure of several local vegan eateries, Kay, who co-founded the shop with Andrew Horne, took to Instagram to share some of the difficulties the business has been facing and to point out that while some independent eateries may appear to be thriving, the truth is often much more complicated.
In her post, Kay said: “There’s a number of reasons why you’re not seeing more businesses closing right now - they might not be able to afford to break their lease or make loan repayments, they might have reserves from previous years, they might be lucky enough to have personal savings or other more successful businesses keeping it afloat.
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“They might be living off a partner’s wage; they might have buried their heads in the sand or be holding on for dear life (and who can blame them), they might genuinely not know what else to do but keep going.
“Our sales are down 38 per cent from this time last year, our ingredient costs have increased, and we’re paying staff more. Due to our lease length and loan repayments, we have no choice but to keep pushing through.”
The post was met with an outpouring of support from customers and other local businesses. Still, Kay told Bristol Live that deciding to be so honest about her circumstances hadn’t been straightforward.
She said: “I've kind of been sitting on it for a while thinking, 'how transparent should you be?' We employ seven people here, and I don't want them to think that they're going to lose their jobs.
"You also don't want people to think that you're a lost cause, and because it also isn't something that can change overnight, it's likely to just be a struggle for an unknown amount of time, but you don't want to keep saying that you're struggling because people get tired of it."
Kay said she was finally prompted to share her experience when OM burger and Jafra kitchen announced the closure of their Gloucester Road locations last week. She explained: "That seemed so out of the blue for people, but the reality is, if we had a break in our lease, right now, I think we would probably take it because sales have dropped so much. And it got me thinking about other reasons why people are still trucking on."
As a vegan business owner, Kay said she’s keenly aware of how the plant-led food scene in Bristol has changed during the cost of living crisis and is worried that as rents become increasingly prohibitive, the city may start to lose some of the more unconventional traders and spaces that draw in visitors.
She said: “Bristol has such a reputation as a really good city for vegans. I don't think it's a case of a saturated market; with all these small businesses, their strength is how different they are and how there's something for everyone, whether you want Persian mezze or you want a dirty burger, or you want to do a roast, we're like very lucky to have lots of things catered for.
"I used to think that, for every one that closes, two will open, but now I think that in Bristol, because of rent prices, there’s a real risk [of losing variety and choice]. I think you'll get more like businesses just doing street trading and pop up where the overheads are smaller or just being delivery only.”
Having a physical space, however, is integral to how Future Doughnuts operates, and one of the ways Kay has adapted is to open it up for events and local clubs. She said: "When we were opening, we wanted to be really purposeful with how the space felt. I wanted it to be a cartoon doughnut shop, really colourful, really unpretentious."
The interior is designed by artist Max Kemp and is both child and dog friendly with a large seating area, step-free access and tables that are easy to move around, whether it's for the weekly parent/carer and baby sessions held every Wednesday at 11.00 am or the Dungeons and Dragons group that host games there on the last Sunday of each month.
Kay said: "We've always been happy for groups and clubs to meet up here. It's free to come and have some tables. We'll do a deal for people coming along if it's a regular group, and the host will get a free doughnut and coffee."
She's also started doing more events, both private and public, including doughnut decorating workshops with an upcoming Easter session running on Sunday, April 2, as well as branching out into acoustic gigs, sober socials and even an evening vegan hot dog collaboration with Little Martha Brewing, a few arches down.
Alongside this, Kay has introduced changes to cut costs and improve efficiency, such as mixing batter in bigger batches every other day to reduce electricity consumption, but said that despite running at the bare minimum, the fate of businesses like hers feels like it's out of her control.
One change she believes would make a significant positive impact would be a reduction in the VAT on hospitality to 10% from the current rate of 20% for people eating in. A petition to the government on the matter has received 16,291 signatures, and Kay thinks that while the cost of living crisis rages on, this shift could mean the difference between survival and closure for many businesses in the coming months.
She said: "We've gone into a survival mode where it's just looking after this place, looking after the staff, making sure that we can make our business loan repayments. It's not sustainable, but we're very much running on reserves, which is not a long-term solution.
"I just like love being part of the Bristol food scene; it's been like a dream of mine to run a little café. Future Doughnuts ended up being so much bigger than I thought it would be, and it's so much more fun and rewarding too. But the risk is bigger as well."
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