KERB+’s Claudia Bovey: “It’s our mission to break down barriers to entry”
Running a street food business isn’t for the faint hearted. It’s a physical job, carrying heavy equipment, setting up pop-up kitchens in gazebos, on your feet for long days. This has led to an industry that is largely male-dominated. From KERB’s membership of over 140 independent food businesses, 68% of them were founded by men meaning only a third of our membership was founded by women. Only 1 in 3 entrepreneurs in the UK are women, but we want KERB to be better than this!
My own journey began working for a women-owned street food business, STAKEhaus. They’re all about celebrating women in the industry and with a fully female powered brand and business and as the senior markets manager, I want to create that same experience for other women in the industry, empowering them to take the leap. Whilst the industry does require lots of determination, I’ve found it to be super inclusive, and during my time on the KERB I was welcomed with open arms.
And this can be seen through KERB+’s membership now; we truly believe that gender should not be a barrier to entry. Some of KERB’s most incredible alumni are women-led. Take Bleecker Burger! Founded by Zan in 2012, we remember the day she rocked up in her big black van, having only just learnt to drive stick. Since then, they’ve gone on to incredible success, with four restaurants and three delivery sites across London. Another KERB Alumni in Bao London, co-founded by chef Erchan in 2012 when KERB was just beginning. After years of trading with us on the streets at our markets, Erchan and her team now have an incredible collection of four London restaurants.
Many of our women-owned businesses go on to trade at Seven Dials Market, KERB’s flagship food hall. If you visit today you’ll find Yum Bun, founded by Lisa twelve years ago. Discovered by KERB founder Petra, slinging bao buns on Broadway Market, it’s been a love affair ever since. And upstairs in the Banana Warehouse you’ll find a newer addition to Seven Dials Market - STAKEhaus! Founded by my sister Lily - who left behind the corporate world and started her business as a pop up event in her back garden. Today, Lily has gone through the whole KERB ecosystem, trading at markets, events, residencies and now a fixed spot in Seven Dials Market.
These are just four incredible women within the KERB family. They’ve paved the way for women to make a name for themselves in the world of street food - and are a real inspiration to all those who follow. Customers and visitors to our market need to see more women at the helm, and be inspired to follow suit and start their own food businesses.
At KERB+ itself, we’re proud to be a team that’s 85% women. We felt very strongly that now was the time to shift the narrative and shine a light on some of the incredible women-owned food businesses we’ve found coming up through the market ranks.
We have been running our inKERBator programme for over five years now, seeing almost 120 food businesses graduate to date. Food start ups are three times more likely to fail than the average business (according to research by Business Money), but we’ve proven that with the right support and coaching, we can improve this dramatically.
One of KERB’s pillars is to build a diverse ecosystem - from our members to our suppliers, across gender, race, age, cuisine and more. We feel passionately that a diverse ecosystem leads to a diverse kerb - adding more flavour to our streets and societies! We’re proud that KERB+ can provide the tools and platform that allows these businesses to really shine. Allowing opportunities for start-up businesses like Bleecker, Bao, STAKEhaus, to receive the support they need to truly thrive and succeed.
January’s women-owned inKERBator is the first time that we’ve dedicated a whole cohort of the programme to celebrating women. We’re proving our commitment to building that diverse ecosystem, and removing barriers to entry. We’ve welcomed seven incredible new traders onto the programme, with eight women founders between them. Once they’ve successfully graduated in March, this will take our membership to 38% women-owned, and we will continue this work by pushing for more equal gender weighting in the three cohorts that follow in 2024 - and beating the industry standards.
We also work with twelve amazing Impact Partners (charities such as The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network and Food Behind Bars) to further our reach and the diversity of our membership. In the past year, we developed the Streets Ahead programme in partnership with McCain Foodservice Solutions. Through this programme we have seen 203 people being given access to our online KERB Classroom course, 1-2-1 coaching, workshop days, menu development and more. To date, we’ve seen 12 new businesses granted £100,000 in funding. 50% of these were women-owned, and 90% were born outside the UK. We’re looking for more incredible partnerships like this in 2024, to allow our social impact to be even greater.
The inKERBator, and providing routes into the world of food are at KERB’s core. It’s our mission to break down the barriers to entry, and support those with brilliant ideas to have the best possible chance of success in the industry. We need to spread the word that these markets are worth supporting. Eating at a KERB+ lunch market, like the inKERBator which we host at Cowcross Yards in Farringdon, is an incredible way to discover new raw talent and also to support independent businesses.
Once inKERBators have graduated, they get the opportunity to join KERB+ as a member. This means access to an incredibly supportive community of food businesses at all stages - from start up to great success. KERB’s alumni have gone on to amazing things, from the examples I’ve mentioned like Bleecker, to Bao, Yum Bun, STAKEhaus but so many more… and that’s where we expect to see the likes of this cohort in the years to come!
KERB Membership also allows those businesses access to a huge range of trading opportunities - KERB started with pop up lunch markets, but now has one of the world’s best food halls (Seven Dials Market) as well as a huge range of private and public event catering contracts with venues like the O2, Natural History Museum and more. For now, we’re urgently looking for more lunchtime market spots in London to allow all 140+ of our members, but in particular our newly graduated inKERBators, regular spots to trade and hone their business.
Looking forward, we’re exploring the idea of accrediting the inKERBator programme. This would mean that all participants gain not only hands-on training and coaching experience, but an industry-recognised qualification that will be invaluable to them in unlocking future opportunities outside of the world of KERB.
Applications for our next inKERBator are open, entrepreneurs and early-stage businesses can apply via our website here.
