SUPPER_drivers

Source: Supper London

Supper London, the food delivery company of rock stars and royalty, has ceased operations.

The company – which delivered for a host of high-end and Michelin-starred restaurants in the capital as well as Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Planet Organic – was under administration for all of last year, having been bought out in 2022, but had limped on until recent weeks. A Companies House notice shows the company was dissolved following liquidation in February.

Supper London had set itself apart from other food delivery companies by only working with the capital’s top restaurants and delivering orders on canopied bikes, specially imported from Japan, which featured cabinets to keep food warm and safe, or as the company put it: “not thrown around in a cyclist’s backpack, like those other guys do”.

The company also “eschewed the gig economy approach in favour of fully integrating their drivers into the wider team”, providing them with pensions, paid holiday and a guaranteed salary, “contrasting to the rife job insecurity” within the gig economy. In 2021 it launched a logistics and training centre in Battersea, to accommodate its growing operations team and provide a social space for its couriers.

Supper was launched in 2014, by fixed income trader Panayiotis (Peter) Georgiou. According to administration documents, the company was “consistently profitable”, with the pandemic seeing the company’s turnover increase tenfold.

The service featured hundreds of high-end restaurants – including Estiatorio Milos, Mr Chow, Aquavit and Nobu – and a customer base made up of some of the capital’s wealthiest people, including “dames, earls, CEOs” Georgiou told The Evening Standard in 2022. Rock musician Peter Gabriel and comedian Jimmy Carr were known to be users.

In late 2021 it secured a £2.4m equity and debt fundraise from Growthdeck, which said the money would “help them continue on their current trajectory”.

But easing of lockdown restrictions spelled “financial difficulties” for the company – administration documents state - which at its peak employed 30 staff and a fleet of 150 drivers.

Supper London was offered for sale in late 2022 – shortly after the appointment of an administrator – and received four expressions of interest, but only one offer: of £1m. The “unconnected third-party company” Wimpole 101 bought the business in November 2022.

Ahead of its dissolution in February, secured creditor Daedalus Partners was owed £1m plus an additional £150,000 that was “injected into the company” in late 2022 “to meet essential payroll and supplier costs”. This cash injection was to stop a sale of the business from being “jeopardised”.

The company had been posting on social media as recently as a month ago, and in February announced it had added Mayfair fine dining restaurant Mister Nice to the platform. The last update to the Supper London app was made last month.

A post on the Supper London Instagram account late last month – first spotted by The Caterer and now deleted – said simply: “Supper London (Wimpole 101) shutted down”. The company website has been removed.

Several restaurants The Grocer spoke to said they had been told by Supper London that the service had ended. Customers have yet to be informed. An user reviewing the app noted “There is no more restaurants or menu and error messages appear almost everywhere. RIP”. One X user posted this week: “Am I trippin’ or is something wrong with the app?”