Is that the ‘toot’ of new catering opportunities we can hear coming over the brow of the hill? You know what, I think it is!
2020 has done its best to extinguish our industry. We have had everything thrown at us, yet here we are, standing tall and strong.
To even be talking about new business opportunities is a novel experience. It seems our industry hit the pause button in March 2020, and now almost a year on, we are seeing the first green shoots begin to emerge.
But, has 2020 really been without opportunity? Certainly not if you step back and consider everything we have achieved in the face of adversity.
Group Genuine has come together to launch new services and businesses within weeks of one another. Where we saw a glimmer of opportunity, we rotated and created services. With kitchens closed, deliveries became vital, and so we created Genuine Delivery and Lunch3.
When events were cancelled, The Admirable Crichton repurposed kitchens to create hampers and ‘Cook at Home’ kits.
With home deliveries continuing, we opened new dark kitchens for Feng Sushi, increasing exposure and reach.
In the summer, when it looked like offices might return, we created Genuinely Boxed, an ‘off the shelf’ catering solution that offers a flexible approach for clients looking after their bottom line.
Our agile nature become our life raft. A raft which has kept us afloat through the rough seas we have all been navigating. We have won a lot of business on reflection, creating exciting partnerships with new clients.
But we have not been without casualties. With clients repositioning their services, we have lost a lot of great people to redundancy. Great people, great foodies, great friends.
So, where do we go from here?
The sound of that bugle is getting louder, and that sound brings opportunity. Our mission is to support our Genuine Family and invite those out of work back into our kitchens and restaurants. This fight has only just begun, but with our new business innovations, we are better placed now than we were in March 2020, and we are hungrier than ever!
Bring on 2021, we are ready.
Robbie Laidlaw, Head of Sales