We’re changing.

It’s tricky to see ahead to what is to become of Stirling’s small business scene in the next 5 or so years. The cost of living crisis has got us all fairly scared. I’ve seen loads of vegan and vegetarian businesses change hugely or close completely in the last few months; there have of course been scores of non-vegan businesses close too. The universality of the situation really drives home the message that no one is safe. Nevertheless, businesses have commitments to their suppliers and staff, as well as their communities, such that there is no option other than that they keep on going.

We’ve come through the pandemic era, and we’re fast approaching our 4th birthday. It all seems like a bit of a dream. I’ve done the hard part, the part that loads of folk told me I couldn’t: I opened a mostly vegan-focused, specialty coffee shop in Stirling. Now, four years on, I really need to decide if I want to run it as a lifestyle business, where I am the business and have employees who facilitate me, or grow it to be something bigger and more autonomous with a team and a mission.

And as a veggie/vegan business, I’ve felt that we’ve had to be really good at quite a lot of different things to get anywhere near the popularity of other businesses on the Stirling high street. It’s been a necessity to be a lifestyle business, because vegan businesses are inarguably tricky to build in haste, and a great deal less business is driven through their doors due to the use of the word vegan.

Continuing as a lifestyle business would mean trimming things back, employing fewer staff, having restricted opening times, and a much more focused menu and service style; the outcome is less of the stuff people have come to expect and, inevitably, less turnover. And when we hit troubling times, our options will be to spend less still.

Having a vegan orientated business has forced me to learn so much more than I ever thought I’d learn, and has taken me so far out of my comfort zone I don’t know if I could find my way back with a map. We’ve settled somewhere in the realms of bakery/coffee shop/restaurant; it’s been a hell of a task to keep all these plates spinning. I’d like to keep some of these spinning if I can.

I’d wager a large proportion of our business is coming from young people, those with less money and fewer roots planted. Stirling’s population grows dramatically during term time, and leads to a huge drop-off in off season times where the number of tourists coming into Stirling cannot hope to replace the number of students leaving it.

So if I am to grow the business, to ensure I can continue to employ my staff and pay my bills, I need to appeal to more people that live here. We need to find ways of being less polarizing, and so I believe the best course of action is to introduce non-vegan products including eggs and meat to our brunch menu.

Rather than the places you know which have passable vegan options, we can be a place that’s vegan, with decent non-vegan options.

The basics won't change because the beans and mushrooms and pancakes are good enough as they are that they don’t have to change, and toppings for pancakes will be much easier if we can serve the majority vegan as standard, but I think if we help people get involved with what we’re doing by offering the foods they know, they might stick around for the vegan food next time.

That was always the motive for offering milk, a gateway product to get people involved, and loads of people have stuck around because they could get their coffee the way they liked it. Changing minds only works when you are on the same level – and the more time I live on this world the more I don’t feel like it’s my responsibility to change people, only to offer alternatives that are good; simply put, that’s what HBW has always meant to be…accessible.

And milk is something we actually have data for. So, while we aren’t an exclusively vegan café, we still get through volumes of dairy milk on par, if not more so than plant milk alternatives. That tells me that we serve more non-vegans than vegans.

I’m not so dogmatic as to think that you’re either one or the other, that it’s all or nothing when it comes to consumption, because the world is much to complicated to be so black and white.

There are a handful of Scottish meat producers within the central belt we could buy bacon rashers from that would have a lower carbon footprint than the boxes of avocados we go through every single week that are shipped thousands of miles to get to us. I’ve wrestled with the idea of ditching avocado too, and I reserve the right to do so later to cut down on our emissions. I mean only to point out the multifaceted nature of this decision.

I think that there wouldn’t be much fuss if I had opened like any other shop and offered meat and eggs from day one. I think it scares me because I want to know that the people out there that have come to trust me continue to do so. I have no desire to alienate them by “selling out” to a new crowd, but the reality of the situation is that we need to appeal to more people if we want to live a healthy life, have a fully staffed shop, and be financially secure.

And another consideration worth noting, I am looking forward to having a bigger team so I can produce more vegan based meats and products here in the shop. I want to do pop ups, and evening services, and push HBW forward in ways that benefit and appeal to everyone in the community.

I have wrestled with all this for a long time. It isn’t a decision I make lightly. But it is one that I’m excited about because of what it will allow me to do. I’m looking forward to having a team that can support and grow together, to have time and resources to grow and develop the products and lifestyle brand of the business, and to work on the business more than in it.

I hope you trust me, and hope you support me and my team. I really love the shop I’ve built, and value wholeheartedly the custom and support you have all shown me over the last 4 years, and hope it may long continue.

I’m hoping anyone with strong feelings, either critical or supportive, would email me directly with their comments. I don’t believe this is something that will happen overnight, so help steer me if you have insight which I may have missed.