5 minute read
HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN...
RETAILER INTERVIEW
JAMES BRUNDLE?
EAT17, LONDON
THERE ARE FEW CHAINS BLURRING THE RETAIL/FOODSERVICE BOUNDARIES QUITE AS QUICKLY ANDAS DRAMATICALLY AS JAMES BRUNDLE AND CHRIS O’CONNOR’S LONDON-BASED EAT17 BUSINESS.
HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN JAMES?
Hectic, as usual. But no two weeks are ever the same. A couple of weeks ago we did some major work in our Walthamstow store, so a lot of last week was dedicated to working on the new format. We have a restaurant next door to the store, which was obviously closed by coronavirus, so we basically knocked the wall through between the two businesses to allow us to build an artisan bakery in part of the restaurant.
AN ARTISAN BAKERY?
It allows us to diversify our offer by making the store a destination for bakery products and it allowed us to expand the shop to cope with the increased demand while the restaurant remains closed.
We already bake artisan bread at our Bishop’s Stortford store which we then sell through all of our four stores. That has helped grow footfall and basket spend increase but it has also resulted in us supplying other prominent London-based symbol retailers with artisan bread.
AND THIS WILL ALLOW YOU FURTHER SCOPE FOR GROWTH?
We believe so. We knew when the pandemic started that we needed to change the foodservice landscape if we were going to emerge stronger afterwards.
When the restaurants closed, we knew it would be very hard to make a takeout-and-delivery model work profitably.
Eight weeks ago, by using Deliveroo and Snappy Shopper, we started to do some home deliveries. It’s been relatively successful so far. We’re doing about £8,000 a week through the home delivery channels, but we can’t make a foodservice business out of deliveries alone.
HOW MANY STORES DO YOU HAVE?
We have four stores in Walthamstow, Hackney, Hammersmith and Bishop’s Stortford – all with Spar – and the restaurant. The name – Eat17 – comes from the E17 postcode for Walthamstow, where my stepbrother Chris and I opened our first store in 2006.
HAS FOODSERVICE ALWAYS BEEN CORE TO THE BUSINESS?
Always. From day one we wanted to do something different and we anticipated the growth of foodservice and food-to-go, but we always wanted to do it with a twist.
We’ve always intertwined foodservice and retail at a deep level and in lots of different ways.
Our Bishop’s Stortford store bakes artisan bread to sell in all the stores, our Hackney store has a full-scale kitchen that makes over 200 lines to supply to the other stores, we have street food concessions in the stores, and so on.
You’ve got to keep changing and adapting and offering something exciting for your customers.
HOW ARE THE STORES DOING UNDER LOCKDOWN?
We’re doing really well, as many convenience retailers are, but we’ve always wanted to build a legacy out of the pandemic so that our stores emerge even stronger afterwards. We’re in the middle of an unfortunate disaster. It’s not something anyone would ever wish
to happen, but what I love about our retail and restaurant community is that they’re not just sitting around waiting for it to end and wishing for it to be over. They are using their time to start something new or solve the problem and we feel there is a great opportunity for retail and restaurants to merge and start a new wave of exciting food and drink concepts.
James Brundle andChris O’Connor
HOW HAS COVID-19 CHANGED THE WAY YOU LOOK AT YOUR OWN BUSINESS?
It has made us look at how we operate the stores. We’ve always focused on quality from day one. We have a long history of sourcing high quality products and ingredients locally and making a lot of what we sell ourselves. We employ proper chefs to prepare the food we sell, like our Eat17 homemade range of ready-to-go food for now and food for later lines developed with only the freshest ingredients. Everything from chicken and bacon club sandwiches to vegan Thai curries and lobster bisque.
HOW IMPORTANT IS INNOVATION THESE DAYS?
It’s always been important, but the last few months have reinforced how vital is to be able to change, to be looking for ways to evolve and adapt and improve your offer in a really fast-moving marketplace.
I think that foodservice and retail will continue to merge and from our recent success we hope we can see more restaurant businesses think about how they can diversify and work with retail. We’ve seen first-hand how we can supply foodservice through our grocery stores and through delivery service.
SO WHAT’S NEXT?
The last few months have encouraged us to take a more serious look at an Eat17 franchise. In a way, I wish we could have opened a few franchise sites before the pandemic struck because grocery stores are one of the few businesses that have seen an increase in demand as people spend more time at home. I believe our business model is wellpositioned for the new normal, and people will be craving great food and drink within exciting retail concepts as they come out of lockdown.
HOW DO YOU SEE THE FRANCHISE MODEL ROLLING OUT?
It’s something we would need to be very careful about. Since 2006 we’ve been absolutely passionate about the business we’ve built and would need to feel confident that retailers we were working with on a franchise basis would share that passion, that drive to create something truly special and exciting. We work to very high standards in terms of both the food we sell and the in-store environment we create and we would want to see those standards maintained in franchise stores. We’ve worked hard to build something we believe is unique and we would want to work with franchise partners who share our values and our commitment to innovation and excellence.
SO THE PANDEMIC MAY COME WITH SOME SILVER LININGS?
The challenges we are all facing force us to be creative and quick to respond and we have seen great ideas come out of this — ideas that also help give back to the community and bring us all closer together. There has never been a better time to become your own boss and I don’t think people will forget how local small businesses worked hard to provide essential services during this challenging time.
