The Engine Room team up with eco-savvy, young hospitality entrepreneurs Tom Daniels and Jack Boitier at Green Bike Food Company to make sure their start-up business gets the most out of that peddling.
Since the gradual return post-pandemic to the office, Green Bike Food Company has gone from nought to delivering 6,000 healthy meals locally and 40,000 regionally within their first few years. Their remarkable achievements have garnered numerous accolades, including Start Up of the Year in the South East and the dual title of Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Thames Valley. Born of a friendship between its co-founders after studying together at Liverpool University and combining their specialisms in business management and environmentalism, Tom and Jack have created a venture that delivers office lunches via their fleet of electric bikes prioritising green delivery and championing sustainability.
Building upon the foundation laid by Tom’s father, Jon Daniels’ hospitality business Green Bike Food Company was born out of new urgency for efficient, eco-friendly and healthy food delivery and catering services. They saw a gap in the market in Reading and used their initiative and prowess to feed the need.
Due to this success, the team at Green Bike Food Company has also grown from two, when Tom and Jack were doing every element of the operations from peddling to budgeting to a team of twenty-two. This was no mean feat and they have had to learn quickly. Tom and Jack wanted to play to their strengths and quickly recognised that they needed a business adviser. They sought advice from various hospitality and financial consultants to keep up with the business demand but found them ‘removed’, ‘rigid’ and not reflective of the culture they were creating in the company. They are adamant that the team are a collective and want an innovative culture of inclusion, understanding and a non-hierarchical structure essentially based in their friendship.
The Engine Room have been with working with Green Bike Food Company for over a year and witnessed much of their rapid growth and successes. The key to the collaboration was that we offer an affordable monthly retainer which means we became part of the team ensuring involved, personable and affordable commercial management avoiding the need to employ a significant level of finance expertise but also avoiding expensive and remote ‘helicopter’ consultancy and this appealed greatly to the duo and continues to.
We initially worked with Tom and Jack to build a business plan with clear objectives and financial forecasting. This was then used to create an action plan in line with the budget and their ambitions. Using their existing and new systems, information and bookkeeping we created a bespoke dashboard providing full insight into the business offering analysis of performance and new strategies. We are there to respond to their unique concerns and guide them through unchartered territories as new business owners with a new start-up.
With expansion to Oxford imminent, and London in reach, The Engine Room remains alongside them every step of the way offering transformative commercial management in a way that reflects the compassionate ecology they have successfully cultivated.
