We speak to Lucy Mee, Founder of On The Table about her businesses, the inspiration behind her products and what she is working on in 2024.
Q. Tell us about your brand and the inspiration behind it?
A. I’ve always adored deli bits, farm shops, nicely branded food products and the stories behind how they are made. I’m a big advocate for eating simple, unprocessed food made by people who care. On The Table sources and curates small batch, independent food and drink brands and producers. On our website, you’ll find a curation of effortlessly chic sustainable food and drink offerings with a story, boxed up and delivered to your door. Nothing tacky, no wasteful, boring ‘filler’ items. Only elevated, joy-giving curations and effortless customer journeys. I think food is such a good gift, and I wanted to bring elevated gifting solutions to a millennial market.
Q. Talk through some of the best products in your range?
A. Gosh so many, but I am obsessing over the cookie chip chocolate from pump street bakery at the moment, it’s so addictive and such a treat. Citizens of soil olive oil is incredible, Sarah has such an amazing story to tell and is doing really good things for female farmers and soil health, I love their bottle design as well. So chic. I’ve just brought on a brand called Botivo, who make a non-alcoholic aperitif, the branding is amazing and their story is lovely. Finally, I absolutely adore what Sea sisters are doing at the moment, creating the most stunning range of tinned fish, in a really sustainable and creative way. Every tin they do is delicious and I’m looking to bring more of what they offer onto the site. Last one… white mausu, just insane gorgeous black bean rayu, which is heaven on literally everything.
Q. Tell us a bit about you.
A. I’ve always been in the food game, I started working at Jamie’s Italian back in 2012 when I was 18. Absolutely loved it and I really believe that’s where my love of sourcing and simple ingredients came from. Food is just so beautiful and I’ve always been obsessed with how its styled and curated. Whilst at Jamies, I studied design and Innovation at Leeds university and in 3rd year I took a year out and went to gain some industry experience in Sydney, I worked as a food stylist over there and just knew that this world was for me. After university, I saw a street food movement happening in London. These were the days when Pizza Pilgrims, Bao and Patty and Bun were all trading out of gazebos on the street. I turned to my partner and said we absolutely have to be part of this. So we saved £2k and bought ourselves a gazebo and some cooking equipment. We were so young and just had no idea what we were doing but we managed to start our first business “Bill or Beak” a fuck and chicken burger concept and got ourselves into KERB and Streetfeast. We traded at festivals, huge corporate events and stand alone markets. It was amazing.
Q. Biggest lesson you’ve learnt this year with the business?
A. Consistency is key, tell your story and don’t be afraid.
Q. Biggest achievement to date with the business?
A. Having done everything on my own so far, from curation to styling, to socials, to accounts, to packing. It’s been a whirlwind and I’m getting to the point now where I need a team. I am in the process of raising investment so I hope next year will be that year! I think the biggest achievement was last Christmas where I secured a large corporate contract and pretty much single handedly managed to get almost 1,000 boxes delivered across three different dates all over the country whilst we were going through a royal mail strike. The corporate client then said it was the smoothest most responsive gifting run they had ever had.
Q. You have two street food businesses in London. Tell us about that and how business is going?
Q. We do! Our smash burger brand and our first born is called Bill or Beak, soon to be rebranded and rolled out (Watch this space). We then have a brand called Ink which is a modern fish and chips concept. They are both doing really well and allow me to be creative in other areas.
Q. Is your brand working on anything exciting for Christmas?
A. I’m going to create lots of content and some giveaways for Christmas. I’d love to do a Christmas pop up which I may still try and pull off.
Q. What’s in the pipeline for 2024?
A. Building our community, partnerships with creatives and running some pop up events.
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