Loaf Catering

What Loaf Catering does

Loaf Catering is a Belfast-headquartered social enterprise operating across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland through a portfolio of three integrated businesses: an outside catering service, a handcrafted pottery brand (Loaf Pottery), and pottery classes and workshops, supported by four café/retail locations. Founded in 2007 as a trading arm of NOW Group (The NOW Project Ltd, a registered charity), the company reinvests all profits into supporting people with learning disabilities and autism into employment, with a five-year Strategic Growth Plan (2023-2028) targeting 25 employment academies, 300 participants into jobs, and continued café expansion. Customers include corporate clients, individual diners, tourists, and creative-workshop participants across Greater Belfast and Greater Dublin.

Core offerings span food, craft, and experience products. Outside catering delivers fresh, locally sourced food to corporate events, offices, and parties with 48 hours' notice and dietary accommodations (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, plant-based). Loaf Pottery produces handmade mugs, espresso sets, creamer jugs, vases, and gift sets in six colourways using traditional wheel-thrown techniques refined through 27 production stages, with dishwasher- and microwave-safe finishes. The pottery studio at Crawfordsburn also runs classes (Paint Me Glaze Me, Pizza & Pottery Nights, 6-week courses, Paint & Sip) ranging from £25 to £120 per person, with a wood-fired pizza oven supporting the experience-based offering.

Revenue is generated through five primary streams: catering services, e-commerce pottery sales, gift vouchers, pottery classes and workshops, and café food and beverage, with a corporate gifting programme offering bespoke logo-stamped pottery for business buyers. The model is entirely transactional, with unit pricing at the lower end (£10-£35 for most pottery, £25-£120 for classes) and a maximum event capacity of 80 people at the Kilmainham café. Distribution combines direct café trade, online ordering for catering and pottery, and direct sales for corporate gifting. Geographic reach is regional across the island of Ireland, with the pottery e-commerce channel shipping UK-wide. Operational infrastructure includes locations at Belfast City Hall, The Ewart Building (Deloitte partnership), Kilmainham (Dublin), and Crawfordsburn, plus a catering preparation hub at Grosvenor Road, Belfast.

Name

Loaf Catering

Legal name

The NOW Project Ltd T/A NOW Group

Website

https://loafcatering.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Loaf Catering is a 2007-founded social enterprise under NOW Group operating outside catering, handcrafted pottery, and pottery classes across Belfast, Dublin, and Crawfordsburn, serving corporate clients, café visitors, and workshop participants while reinvesting profits into employment programmes for people with learning disabilities and autism.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Event Catering and Artisan Pottery

NAICS

Caterers (722320), Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars (722515)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810)

akta.pro primary industry

Institutional Catering (Schools, Hospitals, Government) (THAFAIAE)

Keywords

• Outside catering services
• Handcrafted pottery products
• Pottery classes workshops
• Social enterprise catering
• Corporate gift pottery

Headquarters

HQ city

Dublin

HQ country

Ireland

HQ region

Europe

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Catering Services: Outside catering delivered to events, offices, and parties across Greater Dublin and Belfast. Food with Purpose tagline emphasizes social mission. Requires 48 hours notice on orders.
2. Pottery Products: Handcrafted artisan pottery including mugs, espresso cups, creamer jugs, vases, and gift sets. Products available in various colour glazes and feature unique hand-thrown characteristics. Sold via e-commerce with UK shipping.
3. Gift Vouchers: Paper gift vouchers available at £10, £20, £25, £50, £75, £100, and £200 denominations. Redeemable at all Loaf cafés for food or pottery purchases.
4. Pottery Classes and Workshops: Various pottery experiences including Paint Me Glaze Me sessions (£25-£30), Pizza & Pottery Nights (£50), 6-week courses (£120), and private event bookings. Sessions include materials, glazing, and firing.
5. Café Food and Beverage Sales: Sit-in café service at multiple locations serving specialty sandwiches, hot food, sweet treats, coffee, and tea. Café spaces available for private events up to 80 people.
6. Corporate Gifting: Branded corporate gifts including custom colour mugs with logo stamping. Bespoke pottery options for businesses seeking branded merchandise with social value impact.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Loaf Catering is a social enterprise that delivers outside catering (food for meetings, events, and parties) across Greater Dublin and Belfast, and produces hand-thrown artisan pottery (mugs, espresso cups, creamer jugs, vases) sold online and in its cafés. The company also runs pottery classes, pizza and pottery nights, paint-and-sip workshops, and 6-week courses at its Crawfordsburn studio, and operates four café locations in Belfast, Dublin, and Crawfordsburn serving food, coffee, and pizza.

Product overview

Loaf Catering is a social enterprise offering a portfolio of three integrated product lines: (1) Outside Catering delivering fresh, high-quality food to events, meetings, and parties across Greater Belfast and Dublin; (2) Loaf Pottery, a handcrafted Irish pottery brand producing mugs, espresso cups, creamer jugs, and vases in six colourways, available online and in cafés; and (3) Pottery Classes including Pizza & Pottery Nights, Paint Me Glaze Me, wheel throwing, and seasonal workshops at the Crawfordsburn studio. The business also operates four café locations in Belfast (The Bobbin at City Hall, Loaf Cafe at The Ewart Building), Dublin (Loaf Cafe at Kilmainham), and Crawfordsburn (Loaf Pottery & Coffee Shop), alongside a corporate gifting programme offering bespoke branded pottery. Established in 2007 and part of NOW Group, all profits support people with learning disabilities and autism into jobs with a future.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Loaf Academy 100: A jobs partnership initiative under NOW Group that pledges 100 job interviews for participants with disabilities and neurodivergence in the catering and hospitality sector.
• Loaf Pottery With Purpose
• Food With Purpose

Products and services

• Loaf Catering (Outside Catering) Outside catering service delivering fresh, high-quality food to meetings, events, and parties across Greater Belfast and Greater Dublin. Requires 48 hours' notice on all orders and includes plant-based, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options. Operates as a social enterprise supporting people with learning disabilities and autism.
• Pottery Classes and Workshops Pottery workshops and classes at the Crawfordsburn studio including Pizza & Pottery Nights (BYO, £50/person, 3 hours, wood-fired pizza included), Paint Me Glaze Me sessions (£25-£30/person, including pottery piece, paints, glazing, firing, and a drink), Friday Paint and Sip Nights (£30/person), beginner wheel throwing, and 6-week courses (£120/person). Sessions include materials, glazing, and firing.
• Loaf Pottery (Handmade Irish Pottery Brand) Handcrafted artisan Irish pottery brand based in Crawfordsburn County Down, producing mugs, espresso cups, creamer jugs, vases, and gift sets in multiple colourways. Each piece is hand-thrown on the potter's wheel, hand-glazed, and kiln-fired through a 27-stage refinement process, with unique character marks from the potter's hands. Profits are reinvested to support NOW Group services.
• Loaf Pottery Mugs (Snow, Blush, Buttercup, Marigold, Cress, Forget-Me-Not) Handmade Irish pottery mugs in six colourways (Snow/white, Blush/pink, Buttercup/yellow, Marigold/orange, Cress/green, Forget-Me-Not/blue), crafted on the potter's wheel, hand-glazed and kiln-fired, dishwasher and microwave safe. Priced at £25 per mug.
• Loaf Pottery Espresso Sets and Creamer Jugs Handcrafted espresso sets (creamer jug plus two espresso cups without handles, £35) and sets of four 120ml espresso cups (£60), plus standalone 250ml creamer jugs without handles (£15 each), all available in the six Loaf colourways. Designed for gifting and ease of storage.
• Loaf Mug Collections and Gift Sets Curated pottery gift sets including a 5-mug collection (Snow, Blush, Forget-Me-Not, Fern, Buttercup) priced at £120, a Forget-Me-Not Gift Set X4 at £60, and the For Coffee Lover's Gift Set combining Loaf's speciality house-blend coffee (250g) with a handmade pottery mug at £30. Free gift packaging included.
• Caroline Duffy Designs for Loaf Pottery (Limited Edition) Exclusive limited-edition collaboration with artist Caroline Duffy featuring hand-painted floral designs on Loaf Pottery mugs (£35) and vases (£75) in three curated colourways. Each piece hand-painted at the Loaf Pottery Studio in Crawfordsburn with delicate layers of leaves and petals.
• Corporate Gifting (Pottery) Bespoke corporate pottery gifting service for businesses, offering colour-matched mugs with company logo stamps, personalised cards, and branded packaging. Available colourways include Blush, Buttercup, Cress, Fern, Forget-me-not, Marigold, and Snow. Pricing and lead times provided on request.
• Loaf Catering Gift Vouchers Paper gift vouchers available in denominations of £10, £20, £25, £50, £75, £100, and £200. Redeemable at all Loaf cafés in Belfast and Dublin for food or pottery purchases. Vouchers must be used in full with no change given.
• Loaf Café at Kilmainham (Dublin) Sit-in café in Kilmainham, Dublin 8, across from Kilmainham Gaol, open five days a week serving speciality sandwiches, hot food, sweet treats, and coffee. Doubles as an event venue accommodating up to 80 people for private bookings. First Loaf café in Ireland, in the Old Chocolate Factory building.
• The Bobbin Café at Belfast City Hall and Loaf Café at The Ewart Building The Bobbin Café operates within Belfast City Hall, open to the public six days a week, offering breakfast and lunch (artisan sandwiches, Irish stew, soups, cakes, scones, coffee, tea) with free Wi-Fi and accessible restrooms. Loaf Café at The Ewart Building on Bedford Street Belfast is operated in partnership with Deloitte, serving food and coffee in a premier location near City Hall and major transport hubs.
• Loaf Pottery and Coffee Shop (Crawfordsburn) Arts centre and café on Main Street, Crawfordsburn with a wood-fired pizza oven and coffee shop. Offers pottery workshops, Pizza & Pottery Nights, and Paint Me Glaze Me sessions. Open Thursday noon-9pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm, with a community garden on site.
• Private Booking (Pottery Venue Hire) Private hire option for the Crawfordsburn Pottery venue for meetings, parties, and other private events, bookable through the Loaf website.

Quantifiable outcome

• Tenfold business growth since 2007 founding
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Refuge ChocolatecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2023Social supply chain collaboration between Loaf Catering and fellow Belfast-based social enterprise Refuge Chocolate. Collaboration launched October 2023, featuring chocolate spread, fudge, coffee, and brownie kits in Loaf cafés. Both enterprises support vulnerable populations - Refuge Chocolate supports Flourish NI human trafficking survivors while Loaf supports NOW Group participants. Partnership creates 'gifts with purpose' combining artisan products with social impact.
• Caroline Duffy DesignsflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerLimited-edition collection partnership with acclaimed artist and textile designer Caroline Duffy, creating exclusive hand-painted pottery mugs and vases. Collection features colourful pieces with floral themes inspired by Caroline's art collection. Each limited-edition piece hand painted at Loaf Pottery Studio in Crawfordsburn with delicate layers of leaves and petals in curated colourways. Caroline Duffy Designs is a luxury sustainable fashion & lifestyle brand founded in 2020.
• DeloitteflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Deloitte at The Ewart Building, Bedford Street Belfast location. Home of Loaf Cafe in one of Belfast's most desirable locations near City Hall and major transport hubs. The Ewart Building has rich history and heritage. Partnership announced at official opening of The Ewart Building in October 2024.
• JAM CardcoreOthersJAM Card (Just A Minute) is an accessibility initiative enabling people with hidden disabilities to communicate their needs. NOW Group and Loaf support this initiative which has surpassed 200,000 users in Ireland. The JAM Card app collects contact details while other information about medical conditions or disabilities remains anonymized and disconnected from user identity.
• Hospitality Sector EmployersflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerLoaf Academy 100 partnership with hospitality employers pledging 100 job interviews for Academy participants with neurodivergence and learning difficulties. Employers benefit from access to skilled candidates and support to make workplaces more inclusive. Initiative launched October 2024 at The Ewart Building opening.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• CH&CO: UK premium contract caterer focused on workplaces, venues, and hospitality. Comparable on premium outside catering and venue-based food service; a likely competitive incumbent for high-end Belfast and Dublin corporate clients.
• Elior UK: Major UK contract catering group serving workplaces, education, and healthcare. A broad incumbent peer in the corporate and institutional catering market where Loaf's outside-catering business competes for events and meetings spend.
• Baxter Storey: One of the UK's largest contract caterers serving workplaces, venues, and hospitality clients. Represents the scaled commercial incumbent against which Loaf competes for corporate catering contracts in Belfast and Dublin.
• Restaurant Associates (UK): UK premium contract caterer serving corporate, cultural, and public-sector clients. Overlaps with Loaf's premium corporate and government venue catering, including operations in landmark buildings akin to The Bobbin at Belfast City Hall.

Direct peers

• The Clink Charity: UK social enterprise running restaurants and catering training inside prisons, with a comparable mission of using food service as a vehicle for disadvantaged-employment outcomes. Closest structural analogue to Loaf's catering-plus-social-impact model.
• Change Please: UK social enterprise coffee brand employing people affected by homelessness, with cafés and wholesale supply into corporate offices. Overlaps with Loaf on café operations, corporate catering, and a mission-driven employment model.
• The Dusty Knuckle: UK social enterprise bakery and café providing training and employment for young people leaving the care system. Comparable in combining artisan food production, training, and café retail under a social-enterprise umbrella.
• Luminary Bakery: London-based social enterprise bakery and café that trains and employs women affected by the criminal justice system. Directly comparable to Loaf's café + training + reinvested-profits model, with similar retail baked-goods and workshop offerings.
• Breadwinners: London social enterprise bakery that trains and employs refugees and at-risk youth, selling artisan bread wholesale to cafés and corporates. Comparable to Loaf on food production, mission-driven employment, and wholesale-to-corporate distribution.

Others

• Emma Bridgewater: Established UK handcrafted pottery and homeware brand with strong gifting and lifestyle positioning. Comparable to Loaf Pottery on the artisan pottery retail side, particularly the limited-edition, gifting-led product strategy.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/lovelyloaf
• Facebookfacebook.com/LovelyLoaf
• Instagraminstagram.com/loafpottery?igshid=zhceuz6809di
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/loaf-catering-and-cafes

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Loaf Catering