After a career working in hotels and restaurants across Scotland, Owner of Arbroath-based WEECOOK, Hayley Wilkes was ready for a new challenge.  

In 2011, she decided to follow her lifelong dream and channel the energy she was putting into working for an employer into setting up and running her own business. WEECOOK initially began by offering private dining experiences and facilitating cooking demonstrations at local markets. A few years later, Hayley had established her own restaurant at a local golf club. This is where the pies that her business is now famous for were first created. 

When the business had to quickly adapt and pivot during the pandemic, WEECOOK’s pies came into their own, with the team delivering them to homes and businesses across Scotland. 

From that point on, the pies became a more prominent focus of growth within the business, winning multiple awards and national acclaim. 

Time to reflect

With the unanticipated demand and significant growth within the pie side of WEECOOK, Hayley sought support and guidance where she could and jumped at the opportunity to participate in the Help to Grow: Management Course at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University in 2022.  

She aimed to ensure she could capitalise on the momentum of the growth in the business and make it sustainable and successful. She is in no doubt that her learnings from the course are one of the contributing factors to the survival of her business through the challenges of the post-pandemic economic downturn.

“The course definitely came at the right time for me. If I’m honest, I think what it helped me realise is that my business model needed to change! We were vulnerable.

"Our overheads were increasing and forecast to increase further to the point of making the restaurant side of the business unviable. The pies were sustaining the restaurant side of the business during quieter seasons which, upon proper reflection, made no sense from a financial or work life balance perspective.

"The course helped me refocus on what was important, what I really wanted to achieve and, most importantly, what I was going to do about it. 

The course provided that welcome respite, forcing Hayley to look strategically at cash flow and where the business was going. This led her to close the WEECOOK Kitchen restaurant in 2024 in favour of a more agile business structure. 

“I wouldn’t have shut that side of the business had I not done the course. It was a tough decision, but it significantly decreased our annual overheads.  

“By doing nothing and waiting, or expecting something to change, we would have likely made ourselves victims of the economic downturn. By taking the hard step of doing what we did, we have continued to survive and our pies have thrived.” 

Clarity for the future

As well as helping Hayley streamline the business, the course enabled Hayley to work on business values. The importance of this was reinforced when a series of high-profile award wins – including the Best Fish Pie in Britain at the British Pie Awards in 2023 and 2024 - brought potential opportunities for taking them to a much larger audience. 

An appearance on Channel 4’s Aldi’s Next Big Thing, where the contenders competed to have products stocked in the budget supermarket, brought them a national profile, and one of their pies was also chosen to feature on Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Weekend show on ITV. 

A boom in sales followed, with increases in revenue directly attributable to the TV shows and articles in the Scottish and UK press. Thanks to the course, Hayley was able to take a strategic view of what she wanted the future to look like and avoid getting swept up in the hype. 

“The skills I’d learnt and connections I'd made helped me realise that I wasn’t actually keen to grow in the way that people were trying to drive me towards. I didn’t want to be a manufacturer for someone else or produce our products in such volumes that would mean upscaling and cutting margins to the detriment of the quality of our pies. 

“What I learned about cash flow projections and financials from the course made me realise that it was not for me. Upscaling is all relative, and although turnover would grow, profitability would be relative, and the automation of our processes would affect the quality of our pies.   

"Becoming a manufacturer of our products for others to wholesale would be a financial risk, I felt we were not ready for.

Building resilience

Now, Hayley’s focus is on adapting the business to weather the current economic climate, focusing on the pies and corporate catering, until the food and drink industry’s fortunes pick up. 

“It feels almost like self-preservation, being careful, taking more calculated risks, keeping an eye on the economy, and the industry-wide impact that the unrelenting increase in overheads is having.  

“I know my customers very well, thanks in part to the work we did on demographics on the course, and, generally, people are being careful with their spending. But there are customers who seek out quality products, who look for provenance, local or Scottish/British ingredients, local specialities and products with awards and accreditations. I’m constantly looking at opportunities to maximise on this. 

“Before the course, I was very reactive. Now, WEECOOK is much more strategic.” 

Marketing has played a significant role in their continued success too, with Hayley crediting both the Help to Grow: Management Course and a follow-up marketing course she did with Heriot-Watt University. 

“Marketing was my favourite bit of the Help to Grow: Management Course. We love what we do and we’re proud of what we achieve, and we love talking about it. If we don’t blow our own trumpet, no one else will. The course really helped me with understanding the importance of marketing on social media, as well as the more traditional media.” 

Building press contacts during the marketing module has helped WEECOOK become a go-to voice for local media covering food-related stories. Their press releases have appeared in national outlets, and Hayley is regularly asked to comment on Radio Scotland.  

Looking forward

Reduced overheads

Sales up 15%

Closing the restaurant, following a clear strategy, and more targeted marketing to build the brand and reputation of WEECOOK look to be paying off for the business. 

Pie sales are continuing to climb too, up 5% from 2023 to 2024, and a further 15% in 2025. A new pop-up street food arm of the business – Phat Baps – which serves filled rolls from the company’s HQ in Arbroath is also proving popular. 

Looking ahead, Hayley would love to open her own restaurant again when the economy is more stable. 

“Until then, it’s keeping our brand visible and continuing to build a reputation for the quality of WEECOOK Pies, our food and cooking. We want to do great food that’s available to everybody, and make a living from it. That’s what makes us happy, and that happiness is what we want to project in our food and our people, and everything we strive to do.” 

Find out how the Help to Grow: Management Course can further your business here. 

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