‘We want to keep the UK fed in this moment of crisis’: The start-ups fighting back against coronavirus

Since the onset of the pandemic, online ordering platforms have seen a huge uptick in sales as the nation copes with sick staff and social-distancing rules. Hazel Sheffield reports

Crosstown Doughnuts has joined with other independent retailers to create its own food box

When JP Then, the co-founder of sourdough doughnut chain Crosstown Doughnuts, launched his own online ordering platform called Slerp in 2019, he had no idea of how important it would become.

Crosstown had been trialling Slerp, a white-label online ordering platform that allows food brands to sell directly to their customers through their own website, for two years, alongside the Hummingbird Bakery and Gelupo, before it went live in September.

The software has allowed Crosstown, which started in London in 2014 and usually sells doughnuts at 20 shops across the capital, to rapidly shift its business to online, in partnership with a number of other retailers.