Restaurant and deli to up Spanish imports in cost-cutting move
LIVERPOOL'S multi award-winning Lunya, twice named the Good Food Guide's North West Restaurant of the Year, is expanding again after successfully branching out to Manchester.
Already it's the UK's largest Spanish online deli, stocking 1,300 items, now owners Peter and Elaine Kinsella are to open up a warehouse to increase direct imports from Spain and manage their online despatch. It's a move designed to improve efficiency and cut costs, which, they say, will be passed on to customers across the board.
There is also a hint of a third restaurant.
The warehouse will have a kitchen to produce a wider range of baked goods, food to go, salads and dips for the delis, to capture the growing demand for this type of product.
Lunya began trading in 2010 after the Kinsellas, Peter an educational psychologist with a deep affection for the Catalonian region of Spain, launched the business in College Lane, Liverpool. In 2015 it opened, to great success, in Manchester's Deansgate.
He said: “The Liverpool restaurant and deli which already carries in excess of 1,300 items is now seven years old.
“We initially personally selected more than 50 suppliers across Spain after bi-monthly trips to make sure we had a true full service continental deli, the likes of which had rarely been seen in the UK before. To give us greater control of supply and manage the increased cost pressures from low exchange rates, we are aiming for 75 percent of all our Spanish products to be directly imported."
He added: “Investment in a warehouse and further increasing the volume of Spanish products with our expansion, will enable us to negotiate better prices with producers and suppliers. Already, we have seen the benefit of that with reduced prices in our restaurant menu; it will also enable a similar price reduction on our deli range too, as soon as our warehouse is operational. A rare bit of positive price news on the high street! Plus we’re really excited at the prospect of a third site for Lunya with our research at an advanced stage.”
