Sophie André on how her sustainable catering business Elysia rapidly changed their business to adapt to lockdown
Lydia Levy is an October 2019 On Purpose Associate, currently on placement with the Centre for Social Impact Bonds at the Government Inclusive Economy Unit.
Each week of the lockdown brings news of another household name going out of business and it’s clear that this will only increase once the government furlough scheme is wound down. However, there have been other stories of organisations rapidly redesigning their business models to survive against the odds, with many social enterprises featured amongst these. An increased interest in how responsibly businesses have behaved during the crisis has highlighted the role of social enterprises and sustainable business in ‘building back better’ as we start to return to some kind of normality.
Within this context I sat down to speak with Sophie André, the Founder and Director of Elysia. Started in 2017, Elysia is a sustainable event catering social enterprise working with surplus food sourced directly from artisan producers, who had to rapidly change their business model when lockdown led to all their bookings being cancelled.
Q: What was Elysia’s main business model before lockdown?
A: Elysia was focused on catering events for large organisations, mostly corporate events. We worked directly with producers of high quality natural and organic produce, using surplus or imperfect ingredients that would otherwise have been wasted. We had built the business around the principle of fairness at every stage: we pay a fair price to producers, treat our employees fairly, and offer competitive prices to our customers, all while saving surplus high quality local produce. In addition we deliver all orders up to 100 people by bike from our kitchen in Bermondsey to venues all around London. Before lockdown started things had been going very well; the company was growing exponentially and we had some very big bookings (serving up to 2,100 people per day) planned for this summer.
Q: When did you realise you would have to change direction and what did you do?
We could see there was a problem quite quickly as all our upcoming events were cancelled within a matter of ten days in early March. It was evident that we needed to change our business model to survive. We quickly made the shift towards making ready meals and delivering those and other groceries to peoples’ homes. We started out taking orders using an online form, but shifted quickly to create a professional website. The early response was great, and within the first 24 hours we had already received a number of orders, with the first ones mostly coming from individuals working for our business clients and their referrals. We also gained a lot of business through leafleting the local area, and saw a really good rate of repeat orders.
Q: What is Elysia doing now?
Now that lockdown is relaxing a little we’re moving back towards our central business to business (B2B) model, and are offering catering for online meetings so companies can treat their teams. While the home delivery service was the right solution to the challenges of lockdown, the smaller margins and time needed to build up repeat customers mean it’s not a sustainable long-term business model for us. We’re also planning to restart in-person event catering when the situation allows.
Q: What were the biggest challenges Elysia faced?
A: We found that quickly changing the logistics and our supply chains was one of the most challenging parts of the switch in our business model, as we needed to source very different ingredients, and find packaging that worked for delivering ready meals. All this was new for the team as we had previously mostly focused on preparing canapés for the events.
The speed at which we had to change our model was also very challenging, and it involved the whole team putting in very long hours during lockdown. We were lucky as Elysia’s financial situation meant that we were able to take the risk and make the switch to our model, meaning the business could keep functioning during lockdown. It was also less risky than it might have been as we knew that, particularly during the early weeks of lockdown, there was definitely a market for food delivery. Often when you launch a new product you’re not sure there is a market there, so we had an advantage.
Q: What were your biggest lessons from this time?
A: The biggest lesson for us is that we had to change our approach to certain parts of the business in order to make this new model work. As I mentioned, the shift in our supply chains was a particular challenge, and we weren’t able to continue working with surplus food as we do in our normal business. This was because when produce is surplus it is not perfect, and not all customers, particularly new customers would be willing to accept this. Surplus food also often has to be stored properly, and although we put out a series of blogs to help our customers make their fresh produce last longer, we found that we had to switch to using non-surplus food except in our ready meals.
We also learnt a lot about how to deliver higher numbers of order by bikes, and how difficult it is. We were used to delivering to events, which is very different to the home deliveries we had to do during lockdown. Our bike deliveries became more efficient through trial and error, and lots of hard work!
Finally, we also learnt about social media, as working directly with consumers requires a far more active social media presence.
Q: What broader advice would you give social enterprises faced with the same decisions you were faced with during lockdown?
A: It’s important to carefully consider whether you want to cease operating during a crisis, or if you want to carry on. Business-wise it is better to keep going; your client base can increase, you’re at the forefront of customers’ and partners’ minds, you are building the company future with new activities and learning and you’re keeping the team active. However, if financially it does not make sense then I am not sure it is worth the effort of continuing for the sake of a bit of marketing. It is not a bad thing to close operations when there is a crisis and then open again when things get better.
Clear communication with the team is also absolutely essential. You need to make sure that your team is on the same page as you about the decision to keep the business going or not, as if they don’t want to fight, the journey is going to be complicated. This is also connected to the issue of recruitment in start-ups. I’ve learnt that recruiting the right person goes beyond the skills they bring, and is a lot about their vision and mindset and understanding whether it fits the company.
Q: What are you planning to continue now that you’re switching back to your normal business model?
A: While we’re happy to be switching back to working B2B, it was really great to have a chance to explore selling retail products made from surplus ingredients. This is something we’d wanted to explore for quite a long time, and lockdown gave us an opportunity to do this.
We’re also hoping to continue catering online work events for our clients even once face-to-face events start up again.
Overall, while this has been a challenging time for the team, it’s also been a very positive experience to see how resilient the company has been during lockdown, and we have learnt a lot.
Q: Are there any other sustainable food businesses you would recommend?
A: I would recommend Nibs etc who aim to reduce food waste by making granola out of surplus fruit and vegetable pulp and Silo restaurant who have a zero waste kitchen.
