Supper London: The trader-turned-food entrepreneur delivering takeaways to rock stars and royalty

Georgiou did not. He genuinely, seriously needed black cod. “So we managed to get Nobu for takeaway by using a lot of haggling and employing a taxi to provide it to us. But the food items arrived in a undesirable point out — sploshed all around on the taxi journey, and chilly. I believed, ‘This could be finished greater — there have to be a large amount far more individuals like us who want wonderful food sent from awesome restaurants’.”

Quick forward eight several years, and Georgiou, who is 50 and lives in Shoreditch, is the founder of Supper London, wherever 150 motorists in 100 branded, canopied scooters provide foods from 200 of the capital’s very best dining establishments — like Nobu (of system), Jean-Georges at The Connaught, and Sushi Samba. Turnover hit £10.5 million very last calendar year.

The business enterprise begun as a side dish: Georgiou initially stored his working day occupation as a trader, while a “very properly connected” good friend managed to get him meetings “at a several key dining places. They all said it was a excellent notion, but have been really anxious about doing delivery.”

To convince restaurateurs that their foods would arrive at customers’ doorways as effortlessly as a waiter would whisk a plate to a restaurant table, Georgiou determined to display them it could be finished — applying his possess money. “I purchased a handful of exclusive bikes from Japan, with temperature-managed bins of chilly, hot and ambient compartments, and commenced a website. I required to present these dining establishments that I was likely to do shipping and delivery the greatest way it could be performed.”

A single of the 1st eateries to sign up was Michelin-starred Indian, Tamarind. And the to start with supply driver was… Georgiou. “I started out the organization with my personal money, so I did orders each day for the initial a few months. We didn’t precisely start with a bang. I didn’t genuinely have a budget for promoting, I was trying to do every little thing myself and I didn’t know also significantly about social media and all that.”

Continue to, there had been benefits to nipping all over the West Close doing deliveries: “One working day, I was headed toward the customer’s home, stopped outside the house a extremely imposing home, gathered all the meals with each other and buzzed the doorway. I handed the foodstuff in excess of, the gentleman thanked me and gave me a tip. As I walked away, I did a double consider and realised it was Peter Gabriel! I’d just sent a Michelin-starred food to a rock god… I considered I had arrived. That 1 moment made the entire Supper London journey well worth it.”

He doesn’t travel all around London undertaking deliveries any far more, but Georgiou does right make use of his 150 motorists unlike the gig financial state giving of shipping and delivery firms like Deliveroo.

“In a cafe you really don’t get a dude off the avenue to serve meals, and nor do we,” he suggests.

Prospects involve “dames, earls, CEOs — we provide to Kensington a large amount, and the addresses match royalty but no matter whether it is employees or the royals, I really don’t know. I’d really like a royal warrant, though!”

The entrepreneur frequently will get his own meal from Supper London — his favourite is Japanese delicacies from Roka. Possessing introduced the delivery organization with his possess dollars (“hundreds of thousands,” he says. “I put a little bit also much cash into a challenge I had no prior experience in”), Georgiou has considering the fact that lifted £4 million from backers, such as a £2.4 million round led by personal trader platform, Growthdeck, in Oct 2021.

“Our product is incredibly rewarding on a for every purchase basis,” Georgiou claims. Lockdown was definitely excellent for enterprise: orders enhanced by “about 1050% among 2019 and 2020,” he suggests. “I experienced folks who hadn’t answered my calls then being quite intense about having the cafe on the system, all of a sudden men and women were being chasing me.”

The normal diner spends £110 on a meal Supper London will take a commission from the cafe, and expenses prospects a shipping cost of around £6.50. Georgiou states the organization has some regulars such as 1 client who has requested the very same lunch and supper from Mayfair Italian C London five days a week for months.

In the coming months, Supper London desires to extend around the cash — it is working on plans for “localised kitchens” run by prestigious restaurant models in the suburbs — but Georgiou does not strategy to take on Deliveroo et al. “I never established out to be the biggest shipping company in the entire world — but I would unquestionably like to be recognised as the best.”