HOW PESTO PRINCESS STAYED TRUE TO ITS 'WE CARE' BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACE OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC

Kathleen Quillinan, founder of Pesto Princess Foods, recalls having a gut lurch when President Cyril Ramaphosa first announced the hard lockdown in March.

“My first reaction was to feel afraid, because you just didn’t know what the scope of this was going to be. At that moment, I could see that food services would definitely just shut down, which meant that 50% of the turnover would disappear, which it did.”

Once the lockdown came into effect, Quillinan devised a plan to distribute the thousands of 500g and 1kg containers of bulk product the company held in storage.

“Our freezer rooms were filled to the brim, so we decided to gift in various directions,” she said.

“Many chefs around Cape Town found that they had the facility and staff, but no customers. They then started making meals for needy people, and we decided to gift those chefs and a number of organisations that were feeding homeless people across Cape Town.”

What made me feel afraid was whether the customer would still see pesto sauces and all the things we make as essential.

In addition, Pesto Princess made drop-offs to significant social influencers, who cooked with the products and posted the results on social media.

“The marketing impact of it all was amazing,” said Quillinan.

As the weeks went by, the company started seeing the impact of its actions.

“We struck such a chord with people… the chefs we partnered with showed themselves to be people with big hearts.” And so did Pesto Princess, who by distributing the surplus product remained true to their “we care” business philosophy.

On its website, the company writes that what makes Pesto Princess world-class is that: “We really care, we don’t just pretend to. We care about everything there is to care about in the realm of business.”

The company, which started from humble beginnings in Quillinan’s home kitchen in 1998, employs around 70 people and supplies two major market segments: food services, which include restaurants, hotels and caterers; and retail: major retailers and smaller independent stores.

“Things have definitely changed for our business,” says Quillinan. “COVID-19 has taught us that we need to change the way we work. Being a food manufacturer, we were not far off anyway. A food facility is used to hand sanitising, protective clothing and masks. We simply had to increase the frequency of what we were doing. As well as masks, we also have visors, which work really well.

“Prior to COVID, people stood close together – they almost touched shoulders on the production line. We can’t do that anymore. And we are definitely not going to go back to that, even if COVID disappears.

Quillinan added that she was excited about the future of the business, albeit in a COVID-19 reality.

“The pandemic has made us a bit more cautious, especially with our plans for national expansion. But it has also unlocked opportunity,” she said.

“One of the biggest things is that a new channel opened up: online retailing, something that we will definitely be exploring further in the future.”