London food retailer seeks publicans, restaurateurs and shop owners for franchise opportunity

Eat17 says offering can help businesses create new revenue streams

An innovative food retailer is throwing London’s publicans, restaurateurs and shop owners a potential lifeline as the UK begins to come back to life following the coronavirus pandemic.

Award winning Eat17 plans to open new stores around the capital and is offering a proven model to business owners interested in turning some of their floor space over to retailing.

Founded in east London in 2006, the company has successfully combined elements of a convenience store with eating out. It has outlets in Walthamstow, Hackney, Hammersmith and Bishop’s Stortford and an annual turnover of around £10 million.
 
Eat17 co-founder James Brundle says: “Our offering isn’t a one size fits all. Instead it’s about us working closely with publicans, restaurant owners and retailers to give them another stream of revenue as they adapt their businesses for social distancing.

“Our concept has been working well in our four stores for 14 years and it’s a model that can easily be applied to businesses that have struggled over the last three months.

“It’s a combination of a food retail outlet and, in normal times, restaurants and places customers can buy quality street food.

“That model could work well with those businesses that have found things tough during lockdown. Most will already be set up with a proper catering kitchen, meaning restaurant quality food is going to be a possibility.

“Where it isn’t or they want to diversify, that’s something we can help with. The same with the retail side of the business. We partner with SPAR on our retail outlets. We can get into businesses and give the advice and support they need to get the retail side off the ground.

“We can also offer a large selection of foods we create ourselves from scratch, including butchery items, wraps, sandwiches, sourdough bread and top quality ready meals.”

Eat17 has forged an innovative partnership with AF Blakemore, owner of 300 SPAR stores and a supplier to 1,100 independents across the UK. The deal has meant the grocery giant combining Spar branding with Eat17 to create a high end convenience store.

During the pandemic, Eat17 has had to diversify due to lockdown restrictions, with home delivery introduced for the food retail and street food sides of the business.

“The last three months have undoubtedly been tough for retailers and we’re having to find new ways to do business and reach customers,” James says.

“Home delivery has become part of our core offering and restrictions have been put in place in store to ensure our staff and customers remain safe.

“For other businesses, the pandemic has hit much harder and they’re the people we want to reach now and help them create a new stream of revenue with a unique offering for their local area.”