Healthy success of food company opens up cafe
A YEAR ago, Ioan Dillon took the reins at Lean Kitchen – a nutritional meal planning business.
While many of Ioan’s friends were going off to university, Ioan took the chance and decided to persevere with his business as he studied for his A-levels.
And the enterprise has become such a hit that he is now opening his own cafe.
He has already made a name for himself supplying some of Wales’ best-known sporting stars with nutritional meal plans, as well as having 12 staff who prepare the 600 food orders a week at the base in Robert Davies Gym in Llanelli.
Lean Kitchen is a nutritional meal planning business that aims to help athletes, gym-goers and families with their busy lifestyle and personal goals with prepared meals for them to eat smart.
It offers a menu full of pre-prepared meals that all have calculated macro-nutrients so customers can keep track of their intake.
Josh Adams, Brett Johns, Lee Trundle and Rhys Webb are just a few of the athletes whom the 19-year-old from Llanelli supplies with healthy, tasty meals.
With Ioan’s business being such a success, he has taken it to new heights and has opened his own cafe – Lean Kitchen Cafe – at Robert Davies Gym.
On the opening day, Ioan said: “I was nervous last night, but now I’m really excited. It’s been really busy this morning, we’ve had a fair few customers so far.
“There was a CrossFit class this morning in the gym so a lot of them stopped for a coffee and something to eat after their class.
“The hope is that people will train in the gym and on their way out they can stop to have coffee, food to go or eat it in the Cafe.
“It’s also open to non-members as well so anyone can come and pop in for breakfast, lunch or a snack.”
Lean Kitchen Cafe offers a variety of dishes such as salt and pepper chicken pasta, spicy lamb and spinach wrap, beef in black bean sauce and rice, bacon and maple syrup pancakes, avocado on toast with eggs and many more.
Ioan says the aim of the cafe is to make it easier for people to start healthier eating. He added: “It makes it perfect that we are based in the gym because that’s where our target customers are.”
Lean Kitchen cooks and prepares its 600 meal prep dishes that go out to customers every Sunday at the premises, so Ioan asked the gym owner, Mikey Davies, if he could open a cafe there as it goes hand in hand with his business – and it took off from there.
The cafe now employs one fulltime barista, one full-time chef and a couple of part-time workers.
Ioan is looking forward to the future of Lean Kitchen and Lean Kitchen Cafe and is expecting more customers in the new year.
He said: “The last few weeks have been hectic, so only now it’s sunk in what’s happening.
“The meal prep is so busy at the moment, I didn’t expect it to be so busy this time of year because in December it’s easier to fall off going to the gym and eating healthier, so business is thriving really well.
“I’m hoping January will be even busier and we’re looking at doubling the amount of meals we prepare each week.”