Square Pie is a British food brand founded in Spitalfields, east London, which specialises in handmade pies.

History

It was founded in 2001, with the first outlet, "The Square Pie Company", being opened in

Spitalfields Market Spitalfields Market is a traders' market as well as a food and art market located in Spitalfields, Central London. Traders began operating around 1666, after the Great Fire of London, where the market stands today. The Spitalfields regeneration p ...

in November of that year. After the success of this shop, and after expanding sales by supplying London venues such as The Social and The Lock Tavern and running a stall at

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbur ...

, Square Pie opened a concession in

Selfridges Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridg ...

food hall in London in 2003. A third outlet was opened at

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lon ...

in June 2004 to be followed by sites at The Brunswick Centre in Russell Square,

Heathrow Terminal 1 Heathrow Terminal 1 is a disused airport terminal at London Heathrow Airport that was in operation between 1968 and 2015. When it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in April 1969 it was the largest new airport terminal in western Euro ...

, Lord's Cricket Ground and

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

. Square Pie went on to have outlets in Westfield White City,

The O2 The O2 is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars, and restaurants. It was built largely withi ...

, Birmingham Grand Central,

Westfield Stratford City Westfield Stratford City is a shopping centre in Stratford, east London, which opened on 13 September 2011. With a total retail floor area of , it is the largest urban shopping centre in the UK by land area and the 4th-largest shopping cen ...

and a fusion brand Square and Co outlet in Bluewater. The Square Pie brand was acquired in February 2018 by Beat Foods Ltd following Square Pie Limited entering administration due to the failure of its restaurant business. Beat Foods Ltd continue to produce Square Pie branded products for the Wholesale and Grocery Markets.

Retail

In 2007,

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

launched a Square Pie range across 71 of its stores raising to over 500 stores. As with those produced for Square Pies' outlets, the pies in this "Take Me Home and Bake Me" range are handmade, using only natural ingredients, with "clean and simple" packaging designed to reflect Square Pie's image as an "honest British food brand" – Square Pie outlets similarly use brown-board boxes as food containers. Following its successful launch into Sainsburys, Square Pie launched into other retail outlets such as

Ocado Ocado Group is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It owns a 50% share of Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer) and licenses its grocery fulfilment technology to global ...

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

, Coop Food and

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

Specialities

Among the over 116 different types of pies the company made between 2001 and 2006, Square Pie has produced tie-ins to sports championships, making a "humble pie" –

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

meat, red onion, field mushroom and Merlot – to mark Australia's loss at the 2003

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

, and running a "Pie World Cup" during the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

(won by the Senegalese Chicken Yasser). It also launched a pie branded with the

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

logo in 2004, in support of London's (successful) bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012.

References

External links

* {{British pies British pie brands Catering and food service companies of the United Kingdom Food manufacturers based in London British companies established in 2001 Privately held companies of the United Kingdom Restaurants established in 2001 Restaurants in London