Fleet will oversee the continued development of Hawksmoor’s popular At Home meal kit offer, which launched in July last year, as well as the seven-strong retail range of steaks launched in February on Ocado. She will also look to develop further Hawksmoor's London restaurant delivery service that allows customers to create their own personal Hawksmoor meals that are either delivered to certain London postcodes or can be picked up from Hawksmoor's Air Street restaurant in Piccadilly.
The steakhouse group has built a new ecommerce platform to showcase the rapidly expanding range of meal kits, cocktails and gifting options and is looking to extend and evolve its online offer.
At Home has been a big success for Hawksmoor, with the company selling 2,500 to 3,000 kits each week, according to Hawksmoor co-founder and CEO Will Beckett. He says demand for its boxes more than triples for special occasions such as Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day and so far the company has been unable to meet such high demand.
Beckett also says the sales of its steaks in Ocado have exceeded expectations, with sales set to pass £3m a year.
“Hawksmoor at Home has been the silver lining of this pandemic – a chance for us to do what we love and bring a bit of Hawksmoor charm and cheer into people’s lives – and we want to give it every chance of succeeding once restaurant restrictions are lifted, so that people who cannot come to Hawksmoor, for whatever reason, can still enjoy an amazing steak night in,” he says.
“We’re thrilled that Jo has joined to take on the project – we’ve known her for many years and always admired her work rate, intelligence and dedication to people and product.”
Fleet joins Hawksmoor having left steakhouse group Flat Iron last year. Before that she was managing director at Mexican restaurant group Wahaca and has also been managing director at Ask Italian at Gondola Holdings.
In 2019 she was presented with Restaurant Magazine's R200 Unsung Hero Award in recognition of a career in hospitality spanning more than 20 years driving growth in some of the UK’s most recognisable restaurant brands.
Hawksmoor is just one of a number of restaurant businesses who have had success with a meal kit arm of their business, and which is committed to it beyond the lifting of lockdown.
Gary Usher says his restaurant group Elite Bistros will continue with its make at home meal service Elite Bistros at Home post lockdown and that it is also looking to create a catering arm for it, having been “overwhelmed” with customer demand for the service since its launch.
Cumbria-based chef Simon Rogan is also looking to double capacity of his Simon Rogan at Home delivery offer following its success. Last year the group delivered more than 10,000 meals nationwide.