The Phat Files - Part 4
The Phat Story
Every Success Creates Competitors
There's an old saying in business.
If nobody copies you... you're probably not doing anything worth copying.
By now, the colourful Phat Vans had become part of everyday life.
From eight o'clock each morning until early afternoon they travelled around the city, stopping at hundreds of businesses every week.
Customers knew the timetable.
They knew the drivers.
Many even knew the sound of the klaxon horn before the van came into view.
For thousands of people, lunch wasn't something they bought...
It was something they looked forward to.
Without really noticing, we'd become part of their daily routine.
And that's exactly when someone else started paying attention.
Enter the Giant
News had travelled around the city that this little company called Phat was doing something rather different.
People were leaving offices.
Factories.
Workshops.
Warehouses.
Instead of walking to the shops, lunch was coming to them.
Apparently even Marks & Spencer had noticed.
Their flagship city centre store had seen lunchtime trade beginning to soften and they wanted to understand why.
Being M&S, they didn't do things by halves.
After researching what we were doing, they launched their own mobile lunchtime business.
Soon, three enormous black refrigerated vans appeared on the streets.
Finished in smart black livery with large M&S branding, they looked more like government vehicles than sandwich vans.
Around the team they quickly became known as...
"The Beast."
Bigger Isn't Always Better
On paper, the M&S idea looked impressive.
Each van carried two members of staff.
Everyone wore immaculate uniforms.
The vans were packed with M&S sandwiches, salads, snacks and drinks.
Pricing matched the stores.
It all looked incredibly professional.
There was just one thing missing.
Hot food.
No freshly baked pasties.
No hot sausage rolls.
No homemade soup.
And no smell of fresh food drifting across an industrial estate on a cold winter's day.
What we realised was something we've never forgotten.
People don't simply buy food.
They buy the experience.
Relationships Beat Brands
Over the previous few years our drivers had built genuine relationships with customers.
They knew names.
They knew favourite orders.
Who always wanted brown sauce.
Who had just welcomed a new baby.
Who'd been on holiday.
The Phat Van wasn't simply somewhere to buy lunch.
It was part of people's day.
So while the M&S vans certainly attracted attention, something interesting happened.
Customers looked.
Then they queued at the Phat Van.
Some bought an M&S sandwich as a change or buying a favourite they had bought from the store, but actually the Phat Vans overall sales continued as before. Competition just drove more people top rely on lunch coming to them.
Many came back the next day.
It turned out that loyalty couldn't be painted onto the side of a refrigerated truck.
It had to be earned.
Meet the Soup Dragon
Of course, the pasties weren't doing all the hard work.
Another unexpected hero had emerged.
Soup.
Lots of it.
Every day we made more than 80 litres of homemade soup.
We even had a dedicated member of the team who became affectionately known as our Soup Dragon.
Every week there was a rota.
Tomato Monday.
Ham & Pea Tuesday.
Cauliflower Cheese Wednesday.
Seasonal specials.
Winter warmers.
And, of course, the favourite that never changed...
Chilli Beef Friday.
Customers would regularly ask what tomorrow's flavour was before ordering today's lunch.
Some even planned their working week around the soup rota.
Looking back, it sounds slightly ridiculous.
But it showed us something important.
People love routine...
Until you surprise them with something even better.
The Healthy Question
As successful as the business had become, customers kept asking us the same thing.
"Have you got anything healthier?"
It sounded like a sensible question.
Maybe we should offer salads.
Perhaps jacket potatoes.
Something lighter.
Something different.
Like most entrepreneurs, we immediately started thinking...
"What if there's another business hiding inside this one?"
So another Phat Van was ordered.
This time...
It was yellow.
And instead of installing another oven...
We fitted it with refrigeration where the oven normally lived on the back.
We'd been inspired by a trip to London where we'd seen freshly tossed salads being made to order. 'Tossed' was a new and interesting concept.
The idea sounded fantastic.
Customers could choose their own salad leaves.
Choose some protein or cheese -
Chicken.
Ham.
Fish.
Add 2 or 3 toppings -
Seeds.
Nuts.
And pick a suitable dressing.
Everything added and freshly tossed into a bowl while they waited.
We were convinced we'd discovered the future.
The reality?
Well...
Not every great idea turns into a great business.
Customers loved the concept.
They genuinely did.
But they only wanted salads between 12 noon and 2pm.
Making each salad took far longer than serving a hot pasty in a greaseproof bag
Queues slowed.
Sales never reached the levels we'd hoped.
And while everyone said they wanted healthier lunches...
Most people still ordered a Traditional Cornish Pasty.
We learnt one of the biggest lessons in business.
Listen carefully to what customers say...
But pay even closer attention to what they actually buy.
The Yellow Van was eventually reinvented as Phat Jack, serving freshly baked jacket potatoes with a range of toppings.
It enjoyed plenty of loyal customers too.
But once again we discovered the same pattern.
A jacket potato was an occasional treat.
A Phat Pasty was part of people's weekly routine.
Sometimes the simplest lesson is the most valuable.
Our hero product had been there from the very beginning.
The Traditional Cornish Pasty.
Looking Beyond One City
By now the business had grown beyond anything we'd imagined around that original kitchen table.
More than 200 regular stops.
Over 5,000 customers every week.
Each Phat Van averaging around £3,000 in weekly sales, when a Traditional Cornish Pasty cost just £2.50 and a cup of homemade soup was only £1.00.
This was no longer a start-up.
It was a serious business.
The question had changed again.
We no longer wondered if the Phat model worked.
We knew it did.
The question now was much bigger.
Could it work somewhere else?
Next time in Part 5...
We'll share how we started looking beyond a single city, the opportunities that opened new doors, and why leaving the Phat Van business behind became one of the hardest—and best—decisions we ever made.