Fast-growing independent food and drink business Donald’s has opened its first permanent location outside Cardiff as it begins expanding into the London market.
The new Hackney Wick venue is Donald’s fifth regular trading location and its third bricks-and-mortar site.
The opening represents a significant step for a business that started just two years ago as a weekend-only operation at Radyr Cricket Club in Cardiff.
Since then, Donald’s has opened locations on Quay Street and Trade Street in the Welsh capital, established a pop-up with Cardiff Met Football Club and developed a central production facility that has increased its capacity by nearly tenfold.
The Hackney Wick site brings together the company’s full offering, combining speciality coffee with handmade pies, freshly baked cookies, sausage rolls and a growing selection of breakfast, lunch and grab-and-go products.
Donald’s business model is inspired by the bakery and everyday food culture co-founder Gareth Owens experienced while living in New Zealand, where coffee, hot pies and freshly baked food form part of the daily routine.
Customers at the London site can expect a consistent house coffee and rotating filter options alongside the company’s signature handmade pies. Flavours include Mince Beef & Cheddar, Butter Chicken Curry, Ratatouille & Vegan Feta and BBQ Pulled Pork.
The new location will give Donald’s additional opportunities to develop the coffee and bakery parts of the brand while continuing to sell the pies that helped it build a strong following in Cardiff.
The opening follows a period of audience development in London. Donald’s has previously hosted sell-out takeovers at venues including the London Welsh Centre and Dark Arts Coffee in Hackney.
The company is also the permanent coffee and catering pop-up for Welsh rugby fixtures at London Welsh.
Donald’s launched a nationwide pie delivery service in January. The service has attracted strong demand from New Zealand expatriates living in London who are familiar with Kiwi coffee and pie culture.
Its monthly pie specials, which are available by subscription only, have included collaborations with food and drink businesses such as Matsudai Ramen, Tiny Rebel and Tubby Toms.
Gareth Owens, co-founder of Donald’s, said, “London’s a massively important next step for us as a company. It’s easy to get caught in the bright lights of it all, but the community we’ve built here over the past 12 months means it already feels like a home away from home.
Donald’s for me has always been a melting pot of different things – from specialty coffee to pies and trying to bring a fresh sense of creativity to it all – whilst bringing people together over food. It feels right to share that with a wider audience.
At the same time it’s important to continue our expansion for those who supported us in the early days; we took an unconventional method of raising capital through our ‘piece of the pie’ initiative some 12 months ago; we want to show those supporters that we are doing what we said we’d be doing – pushing forward whilst keeping it fun.”
Donald’s was founded by friends Gareth Owens and Harri Rees. The business is named after Gareth’s late grandfather Donald, who was a fan of pies and sport.
From its original weekend van, the company has expanded through permanent shops, sporting partnerships, events, nationwide delivery and wholesale.
Its growth is supported by a purpose-built production kitchen on Penarth Road in Cardiff. The facility brought pie production in-house and increased annual capacity tenfold, from approximately 25,000 pies to 250,000.
The kitchen was developed following a 12-week build and supported by a £10,000 Start Up Loan from the British Business Bank.
It was created to meet increasing demand from Donald’s shops, online customers and wholesale partners while providing the capacity needed to support further locations outside Wales.
The company has also used community-backed fundraising to finance its expansion.
Donald’s raised £70,000 through the rapid sale of its ‘100 coffees for £100’ offer and a community investment round that allowed supporters to acquire a stake in the business, described as a ‘piece of the pie’.
The initiatives demonstrated customer confidence in the company and helped fund its next phase of growth.
