Wrap It Up grows rapidly after a loan
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As a management consultant working in the city, Faisal Haque was used to grapping quick sandwiches in between his hectic schedules. Then a trip to the US changed his life.
“During my trip I had seen how popular fajitas and burritos were, specially those freshly made up in front of the customer,” says Faisal.
It was during this trip that Faisal realised the gap in the market for freshly prepared wraps in the UK.
Not moving far from the city, Faisal and his business partner opened their gourmet sandwich business, Wrap-it-up, at the heart of the City, Bishospsgate.
It was in 2009, that Faisal came to East London Small Business Centre for funding to support their business expansion plans.
“We were in the process of launching our second site on Broadgate Circle. However, in Jan 09 the credit crunch hit and subsequently banks stopped lending, our overdraft was cut and investor finance had disappeared. We still needed finance to complete the kiosk and hence applied to East London Small Business Centre for a loan of £15k.”
At the time East London Small Business Centre was managing the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Loan Fund, aimed at helping London’s businesses survive the economic downturn and as a result retain jobs and support job creation.
Faisal said: “We’ve launched our second site on Broadgate Circle, and recently launched a third store on Villiers Street. We expect to launch another three stores by the end of the year and we have created an additional 15 jobs since 2009. If we hadn’t received the loan from East London Small Business Centre then our business would not be here today.
Now employing 25 staff, across three different stores around the city, Faisal is planning to turn his business model into a successful franchise.
Published August 2010
