Piece owners celebrate successful year being fully reopened in Glasgow following pandemic

Directors John Moore and Jon McDonald, who run Piece, say their customers have been “brilliant” after they completely reopened their business at the end of summer last year following the pandemic.

John, who started the company 14 years ago with a previous business partner, explained: “During the pandemic, we went from 10 shops down to none and then we restarted after the three months with takeaway out of Finnieston so unfortunately, we had to make a lot of people redundant.

“We had to close a lot of shops, so we closed six shops for good and we’ve got the four reopened and it’s been really good.

“I think we used the opportunity to rebuild the company from scratch, so we made a thousand small changes, and they seem to be working.”

Jon McDonald and John Moore [Alistair McCallum] (Image: Alistair McCallum)

During the first lockdown, they had a “few horrible weeks” where they had to make around 50 people redundant, though they tried to remain upbeat.

“It was the uncertainty at that point,” Jon, who first joined in the company in 2015, says.

“It took a few weeks or months before we really knew how much help we were going to get from the Government and the timescale.

“It was initially three weeks they said, four months later it was still closed, but I don’t think we were ever real doomsday, we just don’t get like that.”

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The last of their shops to reopen was on Waterloo Street in August last year, where they now make all their sandwich fillings from scratch.

John said: “The customers have been brilliant.

“The nice thing was even though it took us a while to get all the shops open, each time we did all of our customers would come in and say that they were really glad to see that we survived, and we were glad to see them obviously because they’re paying customers but it’s more than just financial, it’s very much a lifestyle.

“We have a very loyal clientele, a lot of them who are here every single day, and we’ve built that up over 14 years.”

He continued: “People say they’re going out for a Piece, meaning they’re coming to one of our shops, not the old way of they’re just going out for a sandwich from somewhere, so we’ve created a brand that is important to us and important to thousands of people a week and that’s really cool.”

Piece, Waterloo Street [Jen Anderson] (Image: Jen Anderson)

While the pandemic was a difficult time for the company, John says the experience taught them “we’re actually pretty good at what we do”.

He says: “Sandwich-wise, I don’t think there’s anyone doing what we do.

“There’s a lot of brilliant coffee chains, a lot of independents, you now have a bigger choice of lunch.

“You used to have an awful lot of choice for sandwiches, but now you’ve got either international chains, supermarkets, or us in the city centre.

“You still get your wee roll shops, but everything has its own place - we are more expensive, but everything is handmade, everything is locally sourced as far as we can, we’ve got to people in the kitchen knocking out amazing food.

“What sets us apart foodwise is we do the best sandwich in the country.

“We’ve always said that we’ve been voted that as well.

“What sets us apart as a business is everyone here is enjoying what they do and people are coming in to experience the whole thing.

“And we have really good people, we’ve taken on a lot of ex-bar and restaurant staff, so our service level is probably one of the best in the city and we include fine dining in that as well.

“In short, we give a s***, that’s what set us apart.”

Jon McDonald and John Moore [Alistair McCallum] (Image: Alistair McCallum)

They recently overhauled their menu, which took six months to perfect, in response to rising costs, though the quality they're well known for hasn't been changed.

John said: “The Banh Mi we make, we do a pork one and we do cauliflower vegan one - it’s definitely the best-looking sandwich out there. I don’t think there’s many sandwich shops in the country doing baguettes stuffed full of fresh mint and pulled pork and pickled carrots.

“We like to eat it. We’re both from a food background and it’s not just about big tubs of chicken and mayonnaise and tuna and mayonnaise mixed up.

“For a sandwich that has 10/15 ingredients in it, your wait is still only seven minutes and it’s still made in front of you. We don’t have anything sitting in fridges wrapped up ready to go.”

Piece [Jen Anderson] (Image: Jen Anderson)

So, what do John and Jon have planned for Piece next?

“We never want to expand to where we were because that didn’t work as a business but we’re now almost at capacity with the four shops we have so we’d like to see some growth of the business, not meteoric but just to keep moving forward,” John says.

“There are not many places left in Glasgow we can open because we have prime sites, but we are actively looking.

“We would like to think within the next 12 months at the longest that we would have another unit in Glasgow.”

Piece is located on Argyle Street in Finnieston, Miller Street and Waterloo Street in the city centre, and at Maxim Park in Motherwell.

You can find out more HERE.