EXCLUSIVE: Square Pie Discuss their Pie Bond, The Attraction of 'Non-Standard' Locations and Their Plans for 2016
Having recently completed funding their 'pie bond', Square Pie is set to expand both their retail and wholesale presence. We sat down with Founder Martin Dewey to learn more about the campaign, their plans and what's proving popular on their menu (and what not) as the Rugby World Cup draws to a close.
QSR: Tell us more about your crowdfunding campaign
It’s been a great success, we raised over £670k from 330 people (with the largest single investment of £25,000) it has allowed people who love our food to get involved and help us grow the business.
QSR: You’ve recently opened a store in Birmingham- your first outside of London. Why did you choose Birmingham and what does it mean for your expansion plans going forward? What locations are you targeting?
We chose Birmingham because of the fantastic site we were offered in the Grand Central development. It also seems Birmingham has been slightly overlooked in terms of British food and great pies so it proved the perfect place for us to target as our first location outside of London. We are currently looking nationally for great sites in high footfall locations where our fast casual, quality British food offering will go down well.
QSR: A lot of QSRs are seeing more opportunities in ‘non-standard’ locations such as transport hubs, service stations etc than the high street. Is this something you’d agree with?
Absolutely, customers are expecting a branded, better experience wherever they choose to eat and drink and this is ideal for us as we can deliver great British food without the need for extract and from a reasonably small footprint, as well as an ability to cope with large peaks of demand. Our Glastonbury Festival sites are an extreme example of this!
QSR: How many stores do you plan to open in the next 12 months?
We are planning to open five restaurants in the next 12 months.
QSR: You’ve also launched a World Cup pie competition. Which pie is proving the most popular... and which the least?
We have partnered up with World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio’s Charity the Dallaglio Foundation for our England steak and ale pie and this has been very popular, as has the New Zealand Mince and cheese. The Romanian Vegetable stew has not been our biggest seller. It will be interesting to see if the support for the England pie surges now that rugby fans can't support the team on the pitch.
QSR: More generally, what is your most popular menu item?
Pie wise it’s the classics like chicken and mushroom and steak and ale non pie wise its our fantastic steamed then baked jacket potatoes which our customers love.
