Pieminister - Challenger Business
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Well Pieminister got started back in 2003
Before that I used to own a pub down in London where I had a young chef called Tristan who we got on particularly well and we thought
we'll actually make something that we can sell back into the catering industry, so we teamed up, and set about setting up Pieminister
It was about a year and a half in the planning and then quite soon afterwards we acquired a site down in Bristol
where we started making the pies and we had a small shop out at the front, he was out the back making them, I was in the shop selling them, and the rest is history really
Well at the moment we currently have five retail outlets. We've got two in Bristol, one in Oxford, one in London, and one up in Stoke-on-Trent, which is a franchise
We've got 15 market stalls all around the UK. We've got someone on Borough Market which is a ... anyone who knows their food will know Borough
another five or six in London, and yeah lots around the south west and then there's the retail through the festival circuit
as well which is quite a big bit of business, we're doing 60 this summer
The main challenges we've come across along the way really is just growing. We were growing very very quickly since the day we started
you know, we've gone from a sort of one pie to 60,000 pies a week at the moment
and looking to sort of double that in the next 12 months, and actually maintaining that, getting the people on board
that can buy into what you do and actually maintain the quality along the way has been a huge challenge
Getting people to buy into the original culture as well of what we were doing when we first started the business
which was you know all about the quality, all about the ethos in the business, and actually having some fun along the way
as well you know has actually been the biggest challenge I would have thought
I would say the best business decision that I made was actually starting, you know, I've met a lot of people during the course
of what I've been doing that have been talking about going into business, doing this, doing that, you know
I've done it myself on various things, I do it now about new ideas that I have
The most important thing which I did was just start it, getting off the ground, actually putting your hand in your pocket
putting some cash down and saying, right, here's my stall, do you want what I do, you know, and actually making that first step
Since then I think its actually just its been a very very conscious decision from day one just to maintain the quality
and just not forget what we're about, you know, make sure that its all about the pies that we produce
and its about the customers that eat them, rather than about us as a business as such because
whatever we do here, if the customers don't like what we produce, then we don't have a business
so you know its all about the product, all about the customers
There are some other things that make it special and unique I suppose which is really just its about myself and Tristan, you know
we've built the business very very much around our own personalities, our own beliefs
and you know our own ethos and outlook on life, which you know I suppose every person's individual and unique
and by doing that we've developed a business which has got a bit of character, you know, its got a nice
interesting brand which isn't quite ... it isn't stale, it remains fresh, and it evolves the same way that we do as people
I would say the top tips if I could offer anybody, even from start-ups, even up to some of the big businesses
I would say just look after the product. Make sure that you get well known for one thing and you get known
for it being good, you know, be the best in your field if you can, look after your customers
There's no customer that's too small. They all ... some of them grow, some of them disappear
but you know if you look after them from day one, they'll look after you I suppose, and they pay your wage at the end of the day