Healthy meal company abruptly closes all its local stores

What’s happening: The company, which specialized in making and delivering healthy meals to go, quietly closed all of its locations last month after five years in business.

State of play: Co-owner David Yermanos says he wasn’t able to keep the company going once demand dried up during the pandemic. He was able to stay afloat for a while thanks to assistance like the Paycheck Protection Program, but that wasn’t enough.

• Yermanos estimates approximately 80% of his customer based comprised the daytime business crowd — or workers who’d pick up a quick meal to bring back to their cubicles.
• But that customer base disappeared during the pandemic, he adds.

What they’re saying: “We were just burning cash and had to make a tough decision,” Yermanos says. “It was an abrupt closure and it wasn’t something I wanted to do.”

On top of that, Yermanos adds, were compounding factors such as labor shortages and inflation. Yermanos says started paying 40-50% more for beef recently than he had in prepandemic days, for instance.

• “Our premise was to save people money while providing them a healthy choice. Saving money not possible right now,” he says. “I had to start charging people $15 for a small meal.”

Zoom out: Get Fit Foods first opened in 2017 and sold to-go healthy meals at its various Charlotte locations: South End, Ballantyne and Plaza Midwood.

• Yermanos says he is working to get out of all remaining leases now.

The intrigue: Unfortunately customers who have credit with Get Fit Foods won’t get refunds.

• “The business is out of money and we’re all closed,” Yermanos says. “I’m happy with what we did for the last five years.”