A popular mobile food business has announced it will close towards the end of the year, citing rising costs and pressure from VAT among the challenges it faces.

Filbey’s Food Shack announced the decision online, describing it as one its owners had been ‘putting off’ sharing.

They said there was no single reason behind the decision, but that the increasing pressures facing small businesses had made continuing unsustainable in the long term.

In a statement, Filbey’s said: ‘This is a post we’ve been putting off writing, but after a lot of thought and many conversations between us, we’ve made the difficult decision that towards the end of this year, we’ll be bringing our food truck journey to a close.’

In the statement, the business pointed to the rising cost of produce and ingredients, as well as VAT, as factors behind the decision.

It said: ‘The cost of produce and ingredients continues to rise, VAT has put more and more pressure on the business, and there’s only so much we can realistically increase our prices without passing too much of that burden on to our customers.

‘We’ve always put a huge amount of time, energy and love into what we do, but we’ve reached a point where the effort and investment required to keep going simply isn’t giving us the return we need for it to be sustainable long-term.’

The owners said the decision had been particularly difficult because of their love for the business and what they had created.

They added: ‘We love seeing people enjoying our food, the atmosphere we’ve created and everything we’ve built together over the years.

‘This little truck has been such a big part of our lives, and we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve built and everything we’ve achieved along the way.’

Filbey’s also thanked customers who had supported the business, whether by visiting the truck, recommending it to others, booking it for events or supporting it on social media.

However, the announcement does not mean the food truck is closing immediately.

Filbey’s said it will continue trading over the coming months and has ‘plenty more food to serve’ before bringing the venture to an end later this year.

The owners added: ‘For now, we just wanted to be open with you all about what’s happening and say a huge thank you for supporting our little business and being part of the journey.

‘Here’s to making the most of the rest of the year together.’