Independent Premium > Business

T H E S T A R T - U P

‘We want to keep the UK fed in this moment ofcrisis’: The start-ups fighting back against

coronavirusSince the onset of the pandemic, online ordering platforms have seen a huge uptick in sales as the nation

copes with sick staff and social-distancing rules. Hazel Sheffield reports

@hazelsheffield | |1 day ago

3

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Crosstown Doughnuts has joined with other independent retailers to create its own food box

Which food subscription boxes can you still order online?

hen JP Then, the co-founder of sourdough doughnut chain CrosstownDoughnuts, launched his own online ordering platform called Slerp in2019, he had no idea of how important it would become.

Crosstown had been trialling Slerp, a white-label online ordering platform thatallows food brands to sell directly to their customers through their own website,for two years, alongside the Hummingbird Bakery and Gelupo, before it went livein September.

The software has allowed Crosstown, which started in London in 2014 and usuallysells doughnuts at 20 shops across the capital, to rapidly shift its business toonline, in partnership with a number of other retailers. 

“Footfall has fallen off a cliff,” Then tells �e Independent. “This keeps our businessoperating, to keep our great people employed, where our normal supply routeshave been completely shut down.”

Since the onset of thecoronavirus, onlineordering platforms andfood delivery servicesare reporting hugespikes in sales even asthey cope with sick staffand social-distancingrules. Mindful Chef,which sells gluten- anddairy-free menu mealboxes, reported a 387per cent increase infrozen meal sales week

to week. HelloFresh, the meal kit company that was founded in Berlin in 2011,saw its share price rise 28 per cent in one week from 16 March as people stoppedeating out. Riverford, which supplies organic vegetable boxes from its farm inDevon, has recorded the highest ever number of deliveries outside of Christmasas customers have switched to a weekly order or added more to their existing slot. 

W

Read more

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Allplants, a plant-based meal delivery startup that delivers across the UK,recorded a 260 per cent increase in orders in the week ending 20 March. “We’vebeen hiring and training dozens of chefs in the last few days,” Jonathan Petrides,co-founder and chief executive of allplants, says. “We’re trying our best to keepthe UK healthy and fed in this mad moment of crisis.”

Rather than just delivering doughnuts, Crosstown has joined with Estate Dairyand Millers Bespoke Bakery to create its own food box. The box, which also comesin a vegan option, is priced at £49.95 and features bread from Millers that wouldnormally supplied to big department stores including Claridge’s, plus Estate Dairymilk and butter that is normally supplied to coffee shops and restaurants acrossLondon and eggs from Cackleberry Farm in Gloucestershire. The idea is to keepas many small food businesses afloat by banding together.

Then says the early support has been encouraging: “It’s given us a glimmer ofhope that our business is salvageable.”

Nonetheless, Crosstown has already let go several staff from its shops, Then says,as jobs have been cut across the hospitality sector. The losses come as

Jonathan and Alex Petrides, the entrepreneurial brothers behind vegan food start-up allplants

3

SUBSCRIBE NOW

supermarkets have struggled to employ more staff to cope with demand that hasseen empty shelves across the country. 

“It seems so contrasting to see what’s happening at supermarkets at the same timeas businesses like ourselves are sitting on so much capacity,” Then says. “Wethought it was a way to utilise our technology and our distribution channels tooffer a service where there is so much demand. We can pivot our business to startoffering it.”

Crosstown was an early adopter of Deliveroo, but Then became frustrated withthe lack of control that it allowed operators, who do not see customer informationon the platform. He came up with the idea for an online ordering platform to caterfor brands like Crosstown, which already has a large social media following that itcan tap into directly to make sales. “Crosstown has significant reach through oursocial channels,” Then says. “Now we have the tech, it has allowed us to react veryquickly and get something online in a day.”

Slerp charges 7.5 per cent in commission. Then has waived the set-up fees andmonthly store fees for operators to get as many independent retailers online asrestaurants are shuttered indefinitely. Deliveroo and UberEats do not publishinformation about fees, but restaurants say the platforms charge around 35 percent on each sale. Deliveroo and UberEats did not respond to requests forcomment.

We’ve been hiring and training dozens of chefs in the last few days. We’retrying our best to keep the UK healthy and fed in this moment of crisis

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Spurs boss Mourinho delivering food parcelsto the vulnerable

Food rationing ‘must be introducedimmediately’ to stop shortages

Rebecca Long-Bailey calls for National FoodService during pandemic

The Open Food Network is also working with food businesses to support theirtransition to online. OFN aids food producers and wholesalers to set up an onlinepresence, coordinate with suppliers and to start trading on an open-sourceplatform that acts like a virtual farmers’ market, with costs starting from 2 percent of sales. 

Retailers capable of online sales still face challenges keeping staff healthy andobserving rules around social distancing.

Petrides says the 60-strong allplants team are all working from home andcommunicating via Google Hangouts apart from chefs, who are regularlymonitoring their temperatures and doing extra hand sanitising in the kitchen. Therest of the team is working on new ideas to adapt to the situation for customers,including a discount for companies who want to order frozen meals to bedelivered to their staff, so that teams working online can have lunch together overvideo messaging services.

Nonetheless, the virushas thrown allplants’plans for 2020 intodisarray. The escalationof the pandemic camedays after allplantsannounced that it hadraised £3.4m throughcrowdfunding. Co-founders and brothersJonathan and AlexPetrides planned to usethe investment to grow

Watch more

SUBSCRIBE NOW

the allplants’ servicefrom 25,000 to over 60,000 meals a week from its production kitchen. Thecompany was planning a further “series B” round for the end of the year to fundits expansion in Europe and North America by 2025.

“All that has gone,” Petrides says. “We had all sorts of growth plans, new markets,new territories – we had to shelve all of that because it’s not something we canplan around. We’re still very much in the mixing part of how we handle thissituation, but our number-one priority is looking after our team and doingeverything that we can to make sure that we don’t have to let anyone go.”

Slerp has been onboarding independent restaurants and pubs across Londonsince the crisis began, the company says. Whether the growth in online orders isenough to counteract former sales in stores and restaurants remains to be seen.“It’s about trying to preserve jobs, protect independent businesses and offer updemand to our customers where there is a demand,” Then says. “But the situationis moving so quickly that it’s hard to plan.” 

Petrides agrees that it’s impossible to know what’s going to happen next. “Not asingle expert can predict that,” he says. 

MORE ABOUT: CORONA | FOOD BOX | ALLPLANTS | DELIVEROO | UBEREATS | CROSSTOWN

CommentsShare your thoughts and debate the big issues

Learn more

Join the discussion

Loading comments...

SUBSCRIBE NOW

GET IN TOUCH

Contact us

Jobs

OUR PRODUCTS

Subscriptions

Donations

Install our apps

Archive

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Evening Standard

Novaya Gazeta

LEGAL

Code of conduct and complaints

Contributors

Cookie policy

Donations Terms & Conditions

Privacy notice

User policies

EXTRAS

All topics

Voucher codes

Advertising guide

Syndication

SUBSCRIBE NOW