We spent time with two enterprising retail food businesses in the north of Scotland and discovered how resilience, ambition and access to funding helped them take their operations to the next level.

Small businesses and the personalised services they offer are the backbone of many communities, and for two retail food businesses like Surf & Turf and The Bakehouse Market, investing in the people and produce of their local areas has been key.

We know the value of hearing our customers’ stories first-hand, so we travelled to beautiful Dornoch in the north of Scotland to meet with business owners Lewis Smith and his partner Shona Amos of Surf & Turf, and sisters Alisha and Dawn Payne of The Bakehouse Market, to hear them share their experiences of starting businesses close to home.

Watch Lewis and Shona explain how business funding helped them.

·         Location: Dornoch, Scotland

·         Owners: Lewis Smith and Shona Amos

·         Business: takeaway restaurant, two food trailers, catering

·         Time in business: two years

·         Famous for: locally sourced lobster rolls and venison burgers

Lewis and Shona began Surf & Turf as a mobile food truck located at the picturesque Kylesku Bridge in Sutherland in 2022. Since then, they’ve grown the business to acquire a second food truck, stationed at the Glenmorangie whisky distillery in Tain, and their Surf & Turf takeaway restaurant in Dornoch.

Lewis previously worked abroad, which meant long periods away from home. His ambition to spend more time at home and to build a business in his home community led to Surf & Turf being established.

“It was a difficult decision to leave my job because it was reliable and steady-paying,” he says. “But despite the risks, we were sure it was what we wanted to do. We invested all our savings into the first food trailer – even though we didn’t even know where we were going to park it at the time.”

Shona’s background in hospitality helped to provide the basic skills they needed to set up the business. “We had this image in our heads of what we wanted to do. It was about finding a way to work together and do something we both loved.”

The couple had an immediate source of fresh lobster from Lewis’ father’s fishing boat. And the fish, beef and venison served by the business are mostly locally sourced too.

“We know exactly where everything’s coming from, which makes us confident that we’re serving our customers the very best ingredients, and it supports the local community too, which is very important to us,” Lewis says.

When the couple decided to take the plunge and set up their restaurant, they approached their banking relationship manager to explore a range of funding options. They finally opted for a commercial mortgage* so they could buy the premises and avoid paying rent.

Lewis says: “The place came up for sale, but we didn’t have the funds to buy it immediately. We convinced the owner to let us rent it until we could secure the funds. The application process was very easy and it really gave us access to the funds we needed to purchase the premises.”

Their business is now well established and receives a steady flow of locals and international visitors in Dornoch, which is located on Scotland’s famous North Coast 500 route. Looking ahead, the couple aims to maintain their successful business model while expanding cautiously.

“We’d like to open more locations in small villages or towns rather than big cities,” says Shona. “We want to keep it relatively small and focused on quality.”

And their vision includes enhancing their fishing operations to ensure they can fully supply the business. “We’re working towards capturing all our own seafood so we can say 100% that everything is fully sourced by us,” she says.

·         Location: Findhorn, Scotland

·         Business: bakery, deli and local food market

·         How long in business: four months

·         Owners: sisters Alisha and Dawn Payne

·         Famous for: freshly baked organic bread, local produce and specialty coffee

Sisters Alisha and Dawn Payne admit that acquiring The Bakehouse Market wasn’t an easy process. And as former employees at the food market – a retail store that sells takeaway food, coffee, cake and produce – making the transition to employers presented further challenges.

Since a young age the sisters had a desire to own The Bakehouse, so when the opportunity arose, they turned to the community, launching a gofundme campaign that raised £15,000. Along with their own finances and some private investment, Alisha and Dawn were able to make the business their own.

It was a testament to their strong local support and the café’s importance to the people of Findhorn that the sisters were able to make the business their own and continue to serve the fresh, locally made, mostly organic food that the café was well known for.

“People travel to us, because they aren’t able to find that in other places,” says Alisha.

While Alisha manages the kitchen, Dawn handles the front-of-house, and they share responsibility for all other operations including the complexities of scheduling and maintaining service quality seven days a week.

They retained all 12 existing staff to ensure the continuity of the business and, while making the café a financial success is the near-term goal, they are considering a food truck and franchising options for the future.

The sisters say they were inspired by their meeting with Lewis and Shona at Surf & Turf, and it motivated them to potentially explore business financing options in future for specific needs, like buying a van or carrying out maintenance on their historic building.

“It was great to meet someone else in the business on a similar road to ours and tapping into their knowledge and experience was really helpful,” says Dawn.

Adds Alisha: “Surf & Turf are at a later stage in their business than us, so it was it was really inspiring to see what they’ve done in quite a short space of time, and what’s possible with the right backing.”

Explore our commercial lending options to learn more.