It’s been a mad few weeks. Our daily lives have changed, we miss seeing the friendly faces behind our favourite independents. We are sure you do too, so we thought we’d check in.
Not only have they had to adapt their own lifestyle to the new normal, their business has had to change too.
We caught up with Michael, the owner of Urban Pizza Co, a new Pizzeria which is all about the finest ingredients (mainly from Italy). The pizzeria is pretty unique as it’s made up of 2 x 40ft shipping containers which they’ve converted.
The venue has a large outdoor space for live events, music and outdoor cinema (post lockdown).
What was your initial reaction to lockdown?
We were kind of expecting the lockdown so it didn’t really effect anything on our side as we were prepared, although the day the lockdown was announced was the same day we officially opened (it may go down as the shortest launch ever, opened at 4pm, shutdown at 11pm).
How has your business changed over the past few weeks?
The week after lockdown was announced we started offering delivery and collection…. which has been great and thats down to the amazing customers who have given a new business a chance and bought from us. I’m pleased to say feedback has been fantastic. We also share a lot of what we’re about on social media which has helped us connect to our customers quicker than in normal circumstances.
How do you see the long-tern impact on small businesses?
I think there will be huge impact on small businesses long term unfortunately, business is tough and hard work at the best of times so the current situation will only amplify this… however i believe that once the lockdown is over people will be itching to get out and be more sociable. Also, judging by the amazing reaction over the last few weeks, i think local small independent businesses will be supported better than ever. If there is something positive to come out of this, is we will all appreciate things a little more than we did prior to lockdown.
What has been your daily coping strategy in these crazy times?
As we are open 4 days a week (Friday-Monday) this has kept us busy (and sane) and as a new business, the downtime helps us to test new ideas and make improvements, we share a lot of what were about on social media.A couple of our pizzas have already evolved which our customers are loving, and theres one particular pizza we have been working on that will be our signature pizza, something that i’ve not seen done before that tastes unbelievable… and we cant wait to introduce this once the doors officially open (again).
Urban Pizza Co. offering collection or delivery via CityGrab.
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