‘How we thrive when the chips are down’
Cafe boss starts conversation on the industry’s staffing diffculties
The boss of a popular fish and chip shop in Tyndrum has opened up on the industry’s struggles to maintain staffing levels in the face of the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Sarah Heward, boss of The Real Food Cafe, says that on top of significant cost of living challenges, there is a severe staff shortage which is having an impact on some businesses being able to open full time.
Ms Heward took to the eaterie’s Facebook page to “let go” and “inform what is going on behind the scenes in many rural hospitality and tourism businesses in Highland Scotland”.
In her post, she said: “As a consequence of the staff shortage, some businesses are not able to open and others are open but only offering limited hours and services. Other businesses, desperate for staff to allow them to trade are offering higher and higher rates of pay. This is creating a bidding situation, all of which must ultimately be passed back to the customers and doesn’t help any of us operate to the best standards.
“Management are being strangled by the constant recruitment and training loop. This is yet another cost and it means that we are not able to devote sufficient time to taking our businesses forward.”
She added: “Scotland is where I chose to come to live and set up my dream business. I invested everything into creating the café, financially, emotionally, and physically.
“It started 17 years ago when I bought a derelict Little Chef in Tyndrum with my late husband. These days, I help my husband Alan Mccolm, who runs the business and heads up our management team. I also work in a couple of voluntary roles and as a carer to a family member. The café is what defines us as well as being our livelihood and our pension.
“We were Living Wage Employers before all this kicked off and have generally been successful at recruiting and retaining excellent teams. I suspect that we are in a fortunate position compared to many others.
“Over the years, we’ve faced many challenges and we are currently trying to recover from being closed for over nine months during Covid.”
She says the challenges facing the industry, capped off by the “chronic” staff shortages, is hampering traders and will have an effect of tourism.
She added: “If Scotland is to have any chance of getting close to the 2030 goal of being the global leader in 21st century tourism, we need a significant and fully integrated focus and investment on this, from the top of government.
“I guess I feel it’s important we face up to the problem rather than waiting until it’s too late.
“I don’t want a debate about how we got here. We all know the main reasons we are here and it’s complex, not one dimensional. What’s important, is what we now do to deal with it.
“I have ideas which may help mitigate the effects and hopefully I might get the opportunity to put something into motion. However, I suggest that we really need to be having conversations as an industry and as a nation about how we tackle this issue both at a local level and nationally. We should be looking at how we attract more people into the sectors, help save struggling businesses and protect our great Scottish tourism industry.”
Stirling MP Alyn Smith said: “I’m worried for businesses struggling with issues not of their making and know Sarah has invested a power of work to help drive forward Stirling’s tourism aspirations. Staff shortages have been caused by Brexit, which I fought from the start and even since have proposed specific immigration boosts for rural workers but the Home Office refused.
“The Scottish Government has put a lot of funding to tourism businesses but there is only so much resource there and we desperately need the UK Government to produce an emergency budget to help cope with this ongoing crisis. Many are paying the price for the catastrophic economic mismanagement from HM Treasury, across inflation, food and fuel prices. The time to act is now, before it’s too late. My team has been in touch with Sarah to see what else we can do to assist meantime.”