The Phat Files
The Story of Phat – Part 1
From a Kitchen Table to Handmade Cornish Pasties Loved Across the UK
Every great business has a story. This is ours.
Over the coming months, Laura and I want to share the real story behind The Phat Pasty Company.
Not the polished version.
The real one.
The highs.
The lows.
The lucky breaks.
The disasters.
And the moments that could easily have sent us in a completely different direction.
Twenty years of stories, pasties and plenty of happy accidents.
If you've ever wondered how a small idea grew into one of Britain's best-known producers of award-winning handmade Cornish pasties, then welcome.
This is where it all began.
It started with a simple belief
Back in 2006, we believed people deserved better pasties.
After years working for large corporate food businesses, we'd reached a point where we wanted to back ourselves.
We'd learnt a huge amount about food, brands and customer service, but eventually there comes a moment when you either keep talking about running your own business...
...or you take the leap.
We took the leap.
Looking back now, it probably felt far less scary than it should have.
We didn't have huge investment.
We didn't have wealthy backers.
We certainly didn't have a detailed twenty-year business plan.
What we did have was enthusiasm, experience and perhaps just enough naivety to believe we could make it work.
One thing we were absolutely certain about was this...
Whatever we created had to feel much bigger than we were.
Even on a shoestring budget we wanted customers to trust us from the very first moment they saw us.
Professional.
Different.
Fun.
And unmistakably Cornish.
The pasty shop that never happened
My original plan was beautifully simple.
Open a pasty shop.
I spent evenings looking at empty premises, sketching layouts and imagining queues stretching down the high street.
Laura listened patiently.
Then she started asking questions.
"What about the rent?"
"The business rates?"
"The kitchen?"
"The equipment?"
"The staff?"
Then came the question that changed everything.
"How many pasties would we need to sell every single day just to stand still?"
The answer wasn't encouraging.
In fact, it was terrifying.
Within a few minutes we'd talked ourselves out of opening a shop.
Looking back...
Thankfully.
Because if we'd opened that shop, The Phat Pasty Company probably wouldn't exist today.
Looking beyond the High Street
Around that time, every lunchtime we'd watch sandwich vans driving around offices, factories and industrial estates.
Most looked exactly the same.
A white van.
Plastic-packed sandwiches.
A few crisps.
Some chocolate.
Soft drinks.
Maybe a sausage roll.
Functional.
Forgettable.
None of them had any real personality.
Then one conversation changed everything.
"What if the Cornish pasty became the hero?"
Instead of treating it as one product among many...
...what if everything revolved around it?
Freshly baked handmade Cornish pasties.
Homemade soup.
Fresh artisan sandwiches.
Interesting drinks.
Great coffee.
Quality salads.
Friendly service.
Smart uniforms.
Branded packaging.
All delivered from the most unusual vehicle people had ever seen.
Suddenly the dream wasn't about opening a shop anymore.
It was about taking Cornwall to the customer.
That single conversation became the foundation of everything we've built ever since.
Building Phatty 1
Finding the right vehicle proved far harder than we'd imagined.
Every campervan we viewed was either too expensive, too unreliable or completely impractical for carrying ovens and refrigeration.
Then, almost by accident, we discovered a company experimenting with converting small vehicles into mobile food vans.
At almost exactly the same time we came across a tiny Japanese Daihatsu fitted with a classic split-screen camper front.
That was it.
The lightbulb moment.
We could both picture it immediately.
Working with the converters, we designed every inch of what would become Phatty 1.
A full baking and holding oven capable of carrying more than 150 freshly baked pasties.
A refrigerated serving counter.
Hand-wash facilities.
Storage.
A huge claxon horn.
A surfboard mounted on the roof.
Finished in bright red and cream.
It looked absolutely nothing like a catering vehicle.
It looked like fun.
People smiled before we'd even opened the serving hatch.
Exactly what we'd hoped.
Taking delivery of Phatty 1.
This photograph was taken in the field behind our house. At the time it was simply a proud moment. Looking back, it marked the beginning of everything that followed.
Finding our identity
Having worked with food brands, we knew people buy with their eyes before they buy with their mouths.
We needed more than a good pasty.
We needed a memorable brand.
Then our daughter Emma, who was just fifteen years old, came up with the name.
Phat.
Surfer slang for something cool.
Even better, it became the perfect acronym.
Pretty. Hot. And Tempting.
Having tested various names on our neighbours and friends (we were going to call it ‘The Longboarder Pasty Company’), the name Phat raised a smile and everybody remembered it - ‘how’s Phat coming along’ and ‘when will the Phat Pasty Company be ready’.
Everything in the press was surrounding food making you fat and the challenges of the fast food companies such as McDonalds changing direction in the move to healthier menu options. Phat seemed a ‘tongue in cheek’ and fun brand name that summed up that a pasty was always going to be a higher calorie option, but also the humour we wanted to bring to the brand.
This was also at the time of brands such as FatFace and Fat Willy’s Surf Shack who were driving a modern day, fun and trendy Cornish vibe. Cornwall was cool again and now becoming the choice for Summer holidays and weekend breaks. St Ives had Tate and St Maws and Cornish villages were transforming the image, with campervans, surfing and pasties all back in fashion.
This was exactly the direction that we wanted to take the Phat Pasty brand, image and direction of everything we did, was then driven by this mantra ‘Eat Well, have Fun’ (and later to become, ‘Do Good’!)
We also knew it was all about the quality, staying true to our sustainability ethos and ensuring the name was always associated with the ‘best of Cornwall’.
The logo, uniforms, packaging and the famous Phat Van all came together to create something that looked fresh, modern and unmistakably Cornish.
The week everything nearly fell apart
A week before launch, we proudly printed our menus and headed out in our Uniforms, to introduce ourselves to local businesses.
We imagined excitement.
Instead, almost every conversation went something like this...
"Sorry... we already have a sandwich van."
Again.
"No thanks."
Again.
"We're happy with who we've got."
By the tenth rejection we drove home wondering whether we'd just made the biggest mistake of our lives. The Phat Van was about to arrive and it was too late to turn back now!
Had we invested everything into an idea nobody wanted?
Launch day arrived anyway. There wasn't much choice.
Getting up at 5am, making sandwiches and baking off, we loaded Phatty 1 from our converted garage, filled the oven with handmade Cornish pasties, sounded the claxon and simply hoped somebody would come outside.
By eleven o'clock... We'd sold out.
The little red van that nobody thought they needed suddenly became the one everyone was talking about.
Each day the story was repeated - lets put on some more and everyday we were sold out.
By Thursday we'd added over forty regular stops and now were leaving at 8am and returning at 2pm with an empty van.
Waking up on the Friday, we peered out of the window…it had been snowing all night and the Phat Van in the driveway and roads were thick of snow. There was no way we were delivering today and back to bed for a well earn’t rest - we were truly emotionally and physically exhausted !
Back on the Monday and the calls and requests started to come in thick and fast, ‘could you pop round the corner to our business’, ‘could you go to where my wife works across town’, ‘we’ve heard about the great pasties and would love you to add us to your round’.
Within weeks, a second Phat Van was on order.
Looking back now, that first week taught us one of the biggest lessons in business.
Sometimes your customers don't know they want something until you show them it exists.
Coming next: The Story of Phat – Part 2: The Highs and Lows of running the business.