The Business
Ralphy’s Vegan Restaurant is an independently owned vegan restaurant changing the way people view vegan food – quite simply they produce fantastic tasting food which just happens to be vegan.
The challenge
We realised there was a shortage of respectable vegan restaurants in Peterborough and those that had a vegan option were often quite boring and poor quality. We wanted to tackle this and after working from home initially, and using home delivery, we were able to prove that there was a market for good quality vegan food.
The move from home to restaurant seemed almost insurmountable but we were able to open a small kitchen in an industrial unit to cope with the growing demand. Here, we were able to offer limited seating for local businesses in the neighbouring units.
The next stage for us was moving towards opening a proper restaurant – this was the most challenging as it required a bank to believe in us.
The result – how the programme helped
Allia’s business support programmes were a ‘game-changer’ as we were able to gain the knowledge and confidence to start planning and gather the experience we needed to support a funding application.
Allia helped us develop our business plan that gave us the credibility we needed to move forward with landlords and banking partners and also helped us obtain signatures we needed from the local council so we could open to the public.
Since joining the programme, we have gained the confidence and credibility to open a new restaurant in the heart of the city. We’ve welcomed 3 new team members, and although we’ve only been open 2 months the signs are very positive, and our delivery business continues to thrive.
All the workshops were very useful, but without question the single most useful workshop was the one on accounting. Networking was also really valuable and the support from the Allia coaches was amazing – they went above and beyond anything we could have expected in terms of supporting our journey.”
George Smith & Katie McShane, co-founders of Ralphy’s Vegan Restaurant
