Following a turbulent time for the hospitality and foodservice industry, few businesses in the sector have come out stronger in the last two years.
Yet Capital Cuisine, an independent food producer and caterer that supplies products to pubs and restaurants, has seen exponential growth in 2021 despite disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company has taken on 10 members of staff, more than doubled its turnover and increased its production capacity to a 6,000 sq ft bespoke facility based just outside Caerphilly.
While its large event catering service pulled in little earnings in 2021 due to event postponements like the National Eisteddfod and Royal Welsh Show, its food manufacturing branch has been doing the business over the past year and now contributes 80% of total revenue.
Chef and managing director Colin Gray puts this success down to the business’ size and ability to adapt swiftly to changing circumstances in the pandemic.
While wholesalers and suppliers were thrown into crisis caused by staff shortages and supply chain issues, the small indie producer was able to fill the gap left by some larger suppliers who were struggling to fulfil wholesale orders.
“We can react fairly quickly to demands from our wholesale customers. A lot of the big suppliers were reliant on foreign workers who have since gone home due to Brexit and the pandemic,” said Colin. “Our staff are locals and a lot of them have worked for me for a long time. We’ve had to take on three new people to cope with the increase.”
Demand has also been a factor, with Capital Cuisine’s wholesale customers such as Castell Howell wanting smaller pallets of food products because of the drastically reduced demand from pubs and restaurants trading with limited customer numbers.
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Larger orders also meant a greater risk of having to dispose of thousands of pounds worth of stock if a sudden lockdown meant pubs and restaurants had to close, which many wholesalers were forced to do when the pandemic first hit.
“Wholesalers came to us and asked if we could do smaller amounts. That has played into our hands a little bit as we were able to adapt quickly to smaller quantities and give wholesalers a better service effectively," said Colin.
Capital Cuisine now supplies wholesalers in Wales and across the border, including a company in Birmingham that stocks the SA Brains pubs owned by brewery giant Marston’s. Colin said they supplied 52,000 portions of individual pâtés to Marston’s over Christmas which gave them a significant boost in revenue during November and December.
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The company has also pivoted the business slightly to focus on retail. The company repackaged its foodservice dressings, sauces and chutneys for the independent retail trade and has won two Great Taste awards for its sweet chilli Asian glaze and carrot, orange and ginger relish.
“They’re selling reasonably well at the moment. It’s quite a saturated market to trade into, but it’s taking shape and we’re getting some small growth but we’ve no plans to get into the supermarkets,” said Colin, who’s retail experience includes starting Barons Patisserie in Cardiff’s Oxford arcade and more recently producing a range of products under the Bodlon brand in partnership with Caffi Bodlon in Whitchurch.
He’s now launching a lemon & turmeric dressing and a pistachio dukkah in retail packs but said hospitality will still be the focus for the majority of sales.
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Moving forward, Colin expects to hit the £1m milestone in the next financial year but is focused on stabilising growth and becoming a more profitable business.
“We want to grow our portfolio with our existing customer base and get them to buy things more effectively,” he said.
Speaking on the latest Covid restrictions on pubs, bars and restaurants, Colin said they have been devastating for the venues.
“It puts a lot of pressure on the industry to be the Covid police effectively and restaurants shouldn’t be expected to police it. I personally think the restrictions have been overzealous this time.”
The Welsh Government has since announced a move to take Wales to alert level zero by January 28, ending the rule of six and table service restrictions for hospitality brought in on Boxing Day. But Colin questions the lasting impact these restrictions will have on pubs and restaurants and their suppliers.
He said: “That’s still the whole month of January really shot to pieces for the hospitality trade which is already a quiet month. The Government has been very generous with the furlough scheme and grants, but the supply chain got the short end of the stick, because the grants and business rates relief weren’t forthcoming for the suppliers of those hospitality businesses.”