Le Montmartre has been serving food at fashion shows and banking conferences for a decade, building up more than 800 clients.
Like the rest of the catering industry, the company suffered enormously when lockdown began in March. All its jobs were cancelled and the company’s entire staff had to be furloughed.
Faced with the possibility of making all 25 employees redundant, owner Nordine El Khouloudi quickly had to rethink his business.
Sensing an opportunity as workers began to trickle back to offices, he launched Lunch2Desk, which delivers food directly to workplaces — and received a flood of orders. The company, which has two kitchens in central London, has brought many of its staff off furlough and Mr El Khouloudi believes he will need to hire at least 10 more by the end of August.
The former banker, who quit JP Morgan during the 2008 financial crisis to retrain as a baker, said: “It was a very worrying time. One minute we were catering Paris Fashion Week and the next there is nothing at all. We knew we needed to do something because we cater for events. We thought with fewer places open for lunch, workers not wanting or being able to leave the office as much at lunchtime, there could be a real market for quality lunch deliveries.
“When you are in the Shard on the 40th floor and only two people are allowed to use the lift at once, it’s going to be time consuming to get out for lunch. “The businesses we were doing events for have supported us and are now ordering in lunches into their offices. We thought this would keep us going and help save jobs but it has been very successful.”
