The big interview: The Pantry

In an industry struggling with labour shortages, Luke Consiglio, owner of Uxbridge-based caterer The Pantry, appears to possess a magic formula for keeping staff on side. Jane Renton endeavours to unlock his secrets…

The thing that strikes one about Luke Consiglio is his unwavering optimism. He is Tigger in an industry of Eeyores. The immensely likeable father of three is clearly a man whose glass is half full. Where others see problems, he sees only opportunity – particularly in the ultra-competitive school food market, where he services some 140 schools.

By September, this burgeoning sector will account for half of his current £17m turnover. “We are now up there with the big boys and winning awards for what we do,” he says.

It is not just awards and nominations that have contributed to his recent industry prominence. New contracts are coming thick and fast, most noticeably in the schools market, which he believes will eventually comprise of 75% of his business. This is compared to his business and industry contracts, which he says “just keep happening”. “We have grown every year for the past 18 years, even during Covid,” he adds.

This September sees the mobilisation of some 40 new schools, largely in London boroughs. This represents a considerable feat that has no doubt made him something of a thorn in the side of the school food industry’s major players.

Some will, no doubt, regard him as one of the new buccaneers who have flooded into the education market in recent years, which has reduced the pickings for many traditional incumbents. But Consiglio – something of an accidental entrepreneur, who set up in business 18 years ago with just one sandwich shop on Hayes High Street, funded with a £10,000 loan from his parents – believes his success is down to the way he runs his company and, in particular, the 500 people who now work for him.

“I know I go around saying this a lot, but we are not struggling for staff at all in terms of recruitment – we’re just not,” he declares. “We’re inundated with people who want to come and work for us.”

In this climate, many would be both pleased but also fazed by the prospect of mobilising these 40 new schools, but not Consiglio, who in addition is also gearing up for the introduction of the London Mayor’s new initiative to extend universal free school meals to all primary school pupils: “I have a waiting list of good managers within our industry who want to join us, which is why I am confident about handling the new business we’ve got coming in September,” he reasons.

Consiglio believes that this happy state is due in large part to the fact that no-one in his company was made redundant during the Covid lockdown period. The same did not hold true for other such businesses, some of which shed “something like 50% of their staff”, he observes.

When the government finally gave the green light allowing for the reopening of offices, Consiglio says everyone who worked at his head office returned without coercion. “Every person who worked there turned up on day one. There were no difficult conversations.” Even operations managers, who in previous jobs had shunned the head office like the plague, were happy to come in for meetings and discussions.

But there is more to it than just leniency towards staff during the pandemic. Consiglio maintains that the structure of his company, which is entirely owned by him, also mitigates towards a more ‘people-centric’, engaged business. “This means I don’t have to worry about paying shareholders and, in turn, I’m able to plough my profits back into my business, and towards supporting and developing my frontline staff.”

He talks of coming up against competitors, both big and small, at recent industry tenders, saying: “They use buzzwords, such as ‘eForce’, ‘culture’ and ‘family’, but we’ve been doing those things for years.”

Being a good boss is not exactly rocket science, Consiglio asserts, though many might disagree with him, claiming that good people management is one of the hardest aspects to get right. Witness the vast industry that has evolved around leadership development.

First and foremost, his abiding philosophy is to treat colleagues as he himself would like to be treated, were he in their shoes. “If I was an employee, I would want to work for my company,” he asserts.

It is, Consiglio believes, about being welcoming, respectful and showing appreciation of what employees do for you, while still holding them accountable for collective goals. All this leads to a more productive and creative environment. “There's never been one person in the whole history of our company who has raised their voice and shouted at people in our offices,” he says.

But there’s more to it than just good old-fashioned courtesy. It is also about giving people self-determination within the workforce.

“I am the opposite of a dictator,” Consiglio says. “I don't micromanage any of my senior team ever. We meet every day, and just as importantly I allow them to make their own decisions and also their own mistakes, because that’s how you learn.”

The same goes for the rest of the 500-strong workforce, many of whom he can no longer personally see on a regular basis as the company expands. Handwritten cards signed by everyone at head office for every member of staff at Christmas and on birthdays when the company had just 50 members of staff is one thing – handling 500 of them is a challenge but a tradition Consiglio is nevertheless determined to continue. Indeed, when I meet him, he has just come from a head office event for everyone whose birthday falls in June “where we all sit down and have birthday cake and a cup of tea, which is lovely”.

Monthly events are also staged for staff in client sites, as Consiglio explains: “We might have a competition or a giveaway, or a pick ‘n’ mix for everyone because it’s Halloween. At Christmas, for example, we provide Pantry chocolate bars in the style of Willy Wonka, with a golden ticket concealed in one of them to give someone a special prize.”

The challenge is to constantly think of new and more ambitious ways of demonstrating his appreciation of his staff, 150 of whom will be joining the company for the first time in September. “How on earth can we expect them to be passionate about their work if the only engagement they get from us is simply getting paid at the end of each month,” he asserts.

All this matters hugely, as excellent service is the means by which The Pantry differentiates itself from competitors and wins contracts. That means not just the quality of the food on offer in either a school or commercial site, but the ability to embed themselves into a client’s site to fully support their needs and specific cultures.

The Pantry employs three nutritionists in its business, something that might seem a little excessive for a relatively small company. “They’re not just there to analyse menus, but to also go into schools to host assemblies and teach children about healthy eating,” says Consiglio, who observes that many schools do not possess sufficient funding to do this on their own.

Regardless, the schools market, which he clearly finds especially inspiring, no doubt influenced by the fact that he is father to three small girls, is facing tough financial challenges. For one, costs are escalating in line with rampant inflation.

It is, as Consiglio concedes, a tough market. This means selecting schools and contracts carefully. It also means monitoring his own company’s cost base and sales rigorously, while also maintaining the quality of the service provided. “We have a commercial team who make sure every single day that each site is earning the money we need to survive,” he explains. “We keep very close tabs and audit on a daily – not weekly or fortnightly, or monthly – basis.”

Consiglio says he has little interest in being part of a race to the bottom in the school food industry. “We will never be the cheapest,” he says. “We only ever lose [a bid] on price and I am fine with that. What I never want to lose on is quality and service.”

Despite an impressive record of company growth, Consiglio insists he does not want to grow so rapidly that quality and service are compromised:. “We want to be the best, not the biggest,” he says.

He could, he says, be two or even three times his current size if ambitious growth was his primary objective, “but we’d end up with the type of bog-standard service and messaging that we most definitely want to avoid”.

At the end of the day, it is all about balance, judgement and relationships, according to this rational optimist, who leaves our interview for home in time to read a bedtime story to his three little girls.

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