Sunday 23 February 2014 10:40 pm

Wake up and smell the coffee

Annabel Palmer talks to Coco di Mama founders Daniel Land and Jeremy Sanders – the childhood friends and pasta fanatics who are bringing quick service Italian to professionals across the City

UK PASTA sales grew by 6 per cent between 2011 and 2012 to reach £557m. We’re not the only ones engaged in an ongoing love affair with the Italian staple: global pasta sales in 2011 hit £18bn. Yet the concept of popping to a fast-food pasta joint for lunch is jarring. First, the 3 o’clock productivity lull would surely be taken to new levels after a plateful of penne pomodoro. And while you can rustle up a pasta dish in less than four minutes in your kitchen, you may worry about freshness away from home.

But that hasn’t deterred City professionals from flocking to Coco di Mama (“Mummy’s boy” in Italian), the quick-service Italian cafe based in the City of London. The business first opened on “the unloved side” of Fleet Street in 2011, and within four months had reached profitability. Today, across its four stores, the chain serves 20,000 customers a week and has a turnover of £5m.

CHILDHOOD AMBITION
Founders Daniel Land and Jeremy Sanders are childhood friends. They both worked in the City after graduating (investment banking for Land; consultancy for Sanders). But working with a range of companies made them realise they didn’t want to be advising other businesses, they “wanted to be building one” themselves. They had a shared passion for food and an ennui towards the same old quick-service loop at lunch, so doing something in that industry was a natural fit. Their forays into professional services taught them the value of hard work – “although we’ve swapped suits for t-shirts, and excel spreadsheets for recipe books, that principle still applies”.

While other fast-pasta outlets did exist, it’s fair to say the duo spotted a gap in the market – good quality, swiftly served pasta to order, at a reasonable price, was hard to find. On previous trips to Italy they often lamented that a mediocre bowl of pasta here would come with a £9 pricetag. “I wanted to pay £4, and we felt there was no reason it couldn’t be done,” says Land. So on evenings and weekends the pair would design sauces suitable for mass production, and ask friends and family to lend their ideas and their palates. The first recipe was put to paper in 2009, yet the business didn’t launch until 2011.

The intervening period was spent sourcing ingredients – “I’ve spent the past five to ten years going to all the farmers’ markets in London and trying different restaurants,” says Land, who has taken on the role of head chef. Sundays were spent on Boris Bikes pedalling City streets in search of interesting sites. They would note down vacant lots and revisit the location during the week to assess foot traffic. They eventually found a run-down site on Fleet Street, which “was a mess. But that meant it was in our price range.”

FIRST STEPS
They needed investment for that first store (though they put in half themselves), so they developed a business plan and went knocking on doors. “We didn’t approach this in the most structured way. We had a lot of contacts from our professional backgrounds which we leveraged as best we could.” Though it only lasted three weeks, they describe fundraising as one of the most torturous processes of their lives. Now, their shareholders include ex-M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose, Arjun Waney, who has backed Suma and Roka restaurants, and – rather touchingly – former colleagues.

How they deliver the pasta, while maintaining freshness, they will not reveal. But to their surprise, it wasn’t those laboured-over recipes that initially enticed customers to their stores; it was the coffee. “When people love your coffee, they start to trust other things as well.” They used Climpson & Sons in Hackney to create a hand ground roast which remains as important to the business today as its expanding menu.

BUSY SCHEDULES
Their roles are clearly divided. Land takes care of operations, food development, and hiring staff. Sanders works on the growth side of the business, the finances, managing sites and branding. He has his work cut out. By the pair’s own admission, it was the fact that Coco di Mama was the new, exciting place to grab lunch that attracted customers through their doors.

But the quick-service food market in London is both highly competitive and ripe for new players – the potential for new concepts, new cuisines, is huge. At first, the biggest challenge was the sheer number of moving parts, “from broken fridges to staff illness and suppliers not delivering”. But now, it’s making sure their product is always interesting. Without naming names, they express concerns over the fate of those companies in the market that have grown rapidly and may have lost their gloss.

“We’re a tiny player in a monster of an industry, and we are working furiously hard to make sure our existing restaurants are offering top quality. Because as more players flood in, it will be those offering quality that survive.” Now, their menu also offers salads and sandwiches, and to this day, nothing costs more than £5. It’s enough to excite their customers. Let’s hope their hard work will help it stay that way.

CV DANIEL LAND
Company name: Coco di Mama

Founded: 2011

Job title: Co-founder

Age: 30

Lives: London

Studies: Maths at Edinburgh

Drinking: Whiskey sour

Eating: Coco di Mama pasta!

Reading: Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahnemann

Heroes: Dennis Bergkamp, Sherlock Holmes

Favourite business book: Winning, by Jack Welch

Talents: Efficiency, London directions, cooking