Cult Welsh coffee and bakery business targets expansion beyond Wales

Nation Cymru staff

A fast-growing independent coffee, pie and baked goods business born in Cardiff, has opened its first permanent London location in Hackney Wick.

The opening marks Donald’s fifth regular trading location, third bricks-and-mortar location and the business’ first permanent site outside Cardiff, following the continued growth from its weekend-only site at Radyr Cricket Club just two years ago.

In that time the business has opened a central production facility, upping capacity by nearly tenfold as well as physical locations on both Quay Street and Trade Street in the Welsh capital, along with a pop-up site with Cardiff Met Football Club.

The new Hackney Wick location marks the beginning of Donald’s London expansion and brings together the full Donald’s offering – serving specialty coffee alongside handmade pies, freshly baked cookies, sausage rolls and an expanding range of breakfast, lunch and grab-and-go food.

Donald’s merges specialty coffee with the bakery and everyday food culture encountered by co-founder Gareth Owens while living in New Zealand; there, good coffee, hot pies and freshly baked food sit naturally together as part of the daily routine.

London customers can expect a stable house coffee offering and rotating filter options alongside Donald’s signature handmade pie range, including Mince Beef & Cheddar, Butter Chicken Curry, Ratatouille & Vegan Feta and BBQ Pulled Pork.

The new opening gives the business more scope to develop the coffee and bakery sides of the brand, while still serving up the pies that first built its cult-like following in Cardiff.

The Hackney Wick opening follows Donald’s growing relationship with London audiences, with the team previously hosting sell-out takeovers at venues like the London Welsh Centre and Dark Arts Coffee in Hackney. Donald’s is now the permanent coffee & catering pop up for all Welsh rugby fixtures at the London Welsh.

In addition, in January Donald’s took their pies online with a nationwide delivery service which has attracted strong demand from New Zealand expats living in London, who are familiar with the Kiwi pie and coffee culture. Their monthly pie specials, available by subscription only, include collaborations with other exciting food and drink businesses including Matsudai Ramen, Tiny Rebel, and Tubby Toms.

Gareth Owens, co-founder of Donald’s, said, “London’s a massively important next step for us as a company. It’s easy to get caught in the bright lights of it all, but the community we’ve built here over the past 12 months means it already feels like a home away from home.

Donald’s for me has always been a melting pot of different things – from specialty coffee to pies and trying to bring a fresh sense of creativity to it all – whilst bringing people together over food. It feels right to share that with a wider audience.

At the same time it’s important to continue our expansion for those who supported us in the early days; we took an unconventional method of raising capital through our ‘piece of the pie’ initiative some 12 months ago; we want to show those supporters that we are doing what we said we’d be doing – pushing forward whilst keeping it fun.”

Donald’s was founded by friends Gareth Owens and Harri Rees and began as a weekend only van trading at a cricket club in Cardiff.

Named after Gareth’s late, pie-and-sport-loving grandfather, Donald. The business has since grown across physical shops, sporting partnerships, events, nationwide delivery and wholesale.

Its expansion is supported by Donald’s purpose-built production kitchen on Penarth Road in Cardiff, which brought pie-making in-house and increased annual production capacity tenfold, from around 25,000 pies to 250,000.

Developed following a 12-week build and supported by a £10,000 Start Up Loan from the British Business Bank, the facility was created to meet growing demand across Donald’s shops, online sales and wholesale partnerships, while giving the team the capacity to support further locations beyond Wales.

The growth of the brand has also been backed by an active community of customers and supporters. Donald’s raised £70,000 through the rapid sale of its popular ‘100 coffees for £100’ offer, and a community investment round which allowed fans to own a stake in the company (a ‘piece of the pie’).

Together, the initiatives demonstrated the level of belief behind the business and helped support its next stage of expansion.
Donald’s Hackney Wick is now serving from 10 til 4 on Saturdays and Sundays at 455 Wick Lane, Hackney Wick, London

For more information, visit www.donaldspies.com or follow @donalds.uk on Instagram.

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