A conversation with the founder of ethical food delivery service, Wings
Plus laggy commuters and Lego laundrettes
In August we wrote an article about dark kitchens and food delivery services. Here it is, in case you missed it:
In that article we mentioned Wings, the rider-owned co-operative which was paying its riders the London Living Wage and sick pay, as well as prioritising local, independent businesses over the big chains.
This week we had a chat with the founder of Wings, Rich Mason (top, left) to ask him how things are going, find out what it’s like creating a worker’s cooperative in London during a pandemic, and get some tips for independent foody spots.
Hi Rich. First off, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background. How long have you been in London and how you went from Deliveroo rider to coop founder?
This is my second time living in London actually. I moved here for the first time a decade ago after graduating uni, starting out in my first career as a theatre producer. That career took me out of London to Cornwall and Birmingham, before I got disillusioned with it and left.
It was at that time I started working as a Deliveroo rider, to try to get some income while I decided what to do next. I never expected it would become my future direction, but the experience left a mark, it was such a sense of injustice. I thought something needed to be done. That was about four years ago now.
My move back to London came when I got a job at a think tank called the RSA, looking at the gig economy and all kinds of things around tech and the future of work. It was amazing to have the chance to look at this problem from a theoretical point of view with some really smart people.
I knew ultimately that I wanted to be building something concrete rather than research and study though, so I left the RSA job with the idea for a cooperative starting to form in my head.
And that led you to start Wings. So why would you say Wings has to exist and why are you the person to do it?
Fundamentally what this is about for me is a better deal for the riders.
It’s difficult to explain how crushing the experience is to be a rider out there on a gig economy contract, meaning that you can wait for four or five hours (as I did frequently) for your phone to buzz, and just earn zero for that time.
You’re stressed about whether you’ll make that month’s rent. There’s nothing you can do, not even a human manager to raise it with. This is daily existence for tens of thousands of people, usually young men.
As a society we’ve embraced the convenience of services like Deliveroo and Uber, enabled by technology that’s arrived so fast; but it’s time that we collectively caught up in terms of what is fair and reasonable for real people who are out there doing the work.
What are the key differences between Wings and companies like Uber Eats and Deliveroo?
Firstly it’s the hourly London Living Wage. As I said, the gig contract on Deliveroo and Uber Eats means that you’re paid per delivery. That’s fine if it’s busy, but when it’s not, you’re earning nothing or less than you need to live on. It’s completely precarious. At Wings we have done away with all that and restored the guaranteed, hourly London Living Wage.
More radically still we’re a worker cooperative, meaning we are actually owned and run collectively by the riders. We have no investors seeking profits, so all our strategic decisions are made with rider welfare at the centre, and any surplus we have is reinvested into the business.
Finally we are more environmentally conscious than those companies. It doesn’t get widely reported but Deliveroo actually incentivises its riders to ride mopeds over pushbikes.
It was different a few years ago, but now I would guess over 90% of deliveries on those platforms is done by moped. During a climate emergency it’s just not acceptable to be adding more emissions to the atmosphere when zero carbon transport can easily do the job. We’re also looking to roll out reusable, circular economy packaging, which I’m really excited about.
Why is it so important to you to deliver from independent local businesses and not chains or ‘dark kitchens’?
I don’t have the same issues with restaurant chains as with existing delivery platforms, many of them are perfectly good companies. For starters we want to create something independent and community-based, here in North London; that’s our brand and it’s our ethos. So of course we’re going to look to local and indie places rather than corporate brands you could find anywhere.
Also it’s that we’re in this place where we’re just emerging from the pandemic, and small food restaurants have taken more of a battering than almost any other businesses. We want to stand with them as they get back on their feet.
What’s it been like starting a worker’s cooperative in London... during a pandemic?! What are the main challenges you’ve faced? Was there ever a point where you thought you might not be able to do it?
I still wonder whether or not we’ll be able to do it all the time! We’ve got an absolutely huge mountain to climb getting this business running sustainably, against seriously intimidating and well resourced competitors. We’ve made a decent start but there’s such a long way to go.
As for the pandemic, obviously it’s been a hectic time for everyone. It’s actually thrown up some opportunities though. I actually spent the first lockdown not working on Wings, but mobilising a huge charity effort delivering emergency food parcels. That gave me a chance to try some of our tech in action, and get a team around me who eventually became some of the co-founders of Wings.
Nobody’s had much of a good time in the last year and a half but I think it has created an appetite for change that wasn’t there before, and a firmer attachment to people’s local communities. In some senses, what we’re trying to do feels more timely than before Covid.
What’s the reception been like for Wings so far? Has it surprised you?
The reception’s been great. Starting a really ambitious socially-minded company comes with a lot of difficulties, but one cool thing is that everyone is rooting for you to succeed!
Everyone I tell about what we’re doing tells me that it’s something that we really need and wants it to be successful. A lot of the customers we’re seeing coming through now are from word of mouth, which tells us we’re doing something right if people are telling their friends and neighbours about us.
This didn’t surprise me, but we’ve had a big response from the rider community as well. We’re only three riders right now, but over 50 riders have already signed up to our waiting list because they want to ride with us.
And how are things going? Do you see Wings being able to extend beyond Finsbury Park soon?
Things are going well. The first extension we’re going to do is extending to a 4, 5, eventually 7 day service - that’s going to come before we extend geographically.
One of the things about this kind of delivery business is it’s a question of density; can we have our riders delivering enough meals per hour to make it stack up? So it makes sense to focus all our efforts on concentrating as many customers as we can in our home area before branching out. But that will happen, I’m sure. Highbury, Angel, Dalston and Stoke Newington are all on our radar.
What would be your advice to people outside Finsbury Park who want to support local businesses when they get a takeaway?
If I’m going to be completely honest the best thing you can do for the local businesses is have a direct relationship with them and order directly from them if you can. Especially if you’re in walking distance and don’t mind picking up - all platforms including Wings take a commission and this is the way to make sure all your business goes to them. The other way is if you discover a place that does great food, think about paying an in-person visit; that will be great for them.
We can’t let you go without getting some recommendations. What are your favourite local, foody independent businesses?
I’ve been raving about Hellenic Grill on Stroud Green Road. Only recently started up by a lovely Greek family. It’s more expensive than your standard kebab shop but you'll understand when you taste the food - such sumptuous meat!
I’ve got to mention Max’s Sandwich Shop - a bona fide local institution! If you haven’t heard of it, just go and have all your limits for how good a sandwich can be blown completely out of the water. It’s also got such a great vibe of an evening - my favourite local place to take friends who are visiting.
Oh, and third is probably going to be Jai Krishna (above), also on Stroud Green Road. Veggie Indian food, great flavours and really great value. Again, it’s just a nice place to be and has a real buzz whatever night you go.
Right now only one of my three is available to order on Wings, but we’re very much hoping that’s about to go up to two. Watch this space!
You can follow Wings on Twitter right here. And on Instagram here.
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