How cafe trio invested a pittance to earn a profit

Although you have to sell a lot of cappuccinos and brunches to make a turnover of £900,000, so perhaps Industry Kitchen is only a surprise to those not already in the know.

The café was the idea of Mohammed Ali, his partner Ellie Nicholson and her brother Mitchell who couldn’t travel to their favourite places to eat during Covid so decided to set up one for themselves.

“Food has always been a big part of our lives, from fine dining to street food but during the pandemic we were restricted about where we could eat. Quite often we would go to Manchester and beyond for the evening to eat but during the pandemic I think we just got a bit bored and tired of complaining really of not having good food in the area so thought we would do it ourselves,” says Mohammed.

Initially they set up a café in a local gym for six months. “I used to work with one of the guys in the gym. We had always talked about there not being anywhere to eat and he rang me one day and said ‘how about putting your money where your mouth is and set up a café?’ If we didn’t do it then we would not do it. We are spontaneous people,” says Ellie.

The trio say the café was low risk and they only invested money they could afford to lose. The food was simple, with breakfasts and sandwiches and a Mexican street food menu at the weekends.

“It proved that people in Barrow want this sort of food and also that it doesn’t work in a gym,” says Mohammed. So they found an empty unit – formerly a joiner's workshop - in Risedale Road where they spent a fortnight creating the café with its 28 covers with the help of friends and family, including Ellie and Mitchell’s parents. “It wouldn’t have been possible without all the help we got from our family,” said Mitchell. “And we couldn’t have done it without Rinaldo’s coffee in Plumgarths, so helpful. They supplied our equipment and taught us so much,” says Mohammed.

They deliberately chose an out-of-town location. “We thought if we made it good enough people would come. We did look in town but there were issues with parking and lack of footfall in the town. Here we have free parking and more of a community. After Covid we wanted everyone to sit together. Food is meant to be a social occasion, that’s the inspiration behind the shared benches,” says Ellie.

(Image: Sheenah Alcock)

They opened in September 2021 with a much bigger brunch menu based on some of their favourite city centre cafés. Dishes include salt beef benny, pesto halloumi sando and naga chicken loaded fries. “Originally it was just based on what we wanted to eat, not just one cuisine,” says Mitchell. “We do not do things half-heartedly, if we are providing a plate of food we want to do it well but there’s a ceiling on what we can charge here in Barrow. Sometimes there’s things we would like to serve here but choose not to because we would have to compromise on quality,” says Mohammed.

They all have full time jobs. Mohammed, 30, is a chemistry graduate, who moved from Kent in 2016 to work in business improvement at BAE. In March 2020 he left to consult with automative companies around Europe and then returned to BAE last year. Ellie, 27, and brother Mitchell are born and bred in Barrow. Ellie did a higher apprenticeship scheme at BAE, studying for a degree while working there. She spent six months working at the café during Covid and in January went to work at One Subsea, developing new tech in the oil and gas industry. Mitchell, the youngest of the trio at 24, has worked at BAE and is now at Sellafield. He invested in the business a couple of months after Ellie and Mohammed launched it.

The three took a week off work to launch the café. “We took more in one day than we did in a week at the gym,” says Mohammed. So much so that they could not keep up with demand. They had people coming in to do job trials but they were so busy they offered them a job on the spot.  “It was needs must,” says Ellie.

They took out a £10,000 start up loan from British Business Bank to launch Industry Kitchen, which they have now paid back. Last January they took out a further £30,000 to cover the kitchen renovation at Risedale Road. On top of that the three have invested about £15,000 of their own money plus some family loans.

“We are an example of how to set up on a pittance. We pretty much did everything ourselves. We bought domestic equipment, a domestic oven for a while. We needed to prove it could work before we put more investment in,” says Ellie.

Industry Kitchen head chef Rachael Barker (Image: Sheenah Alcock)

They have invested the profits back into the business, saying they are in a fortunate position as they don’t take a salary from the café. They currently employ about a dozen staff, but like the rest of the county are facing staffing issues. They are in discussions with Kendal College about an apprenticeship scheme. “Both of us did apprenticeships and we see the value of it,” says Ellie. Despite their full-time jobs the trio have a big input on the menus, do trial nights and also all the accounting and payroll which Mohammed taught himself.

It's certainly paying off. In the first year the turnover was more than £90,000, and this has grown year on year with turnover forecast at almost 10 times that for the current operating year.

“We are quite close to being at capacity for what we can do with this place,” says Mohammed and talks about plans to do evening pop-ups and collaborations with other organisations when they are back to being fully staffed. They are also looking at applying for a licence to sell alcohol.

They open seven days a week, with the majority of their customers from
Barrow. Some customers visit every day. “It’s as busy on a Monday as it is on the weekend,” says Mohammed.

A unit next door came up for sale recently but they couldn’t afford to expand at that point.  “It was a shame because we could do with the space. We are in a position to take the next step but we don’t know what it is or how to go about it,” says Mitchell.