This month I had the pleasure of interviewing Luca Malavasi, one of the founding brothers behind Monte Forte, the Surrey-born chain of restaurants famous for its authentic Neapolitan style pizza.
Set-up five years ago, Monte Forte was the idea of Luca’s older brother Paolo; a Westminster Catering College graduate with a first-class degree in geography and a career in finance and recruitment under his belt. He decided to jack-in the ‘traditional’ to pursue his dream of opening a mobile pizza business, inspired by his grandmother, Lucia Monteforte, a native of Napoli, Italy.
Persuading a then 18-year-old Luca to join him was a bit of a challenge, but the duo hasn’t looked back since; enjoying a rollercoaster of success that will see the launch of their third restaurant in Farnham later this year.
I caught up with Luca at their Reigate office to find out how they run the business, and the invaluable lessons they learnt along the way…
So Luca, how did it all begin?
We come from quite a traditional family, where there was an expectation that we’d follow a fairly conventional route; study, go to university, find a secure, stable job and settle down.
So, when Paolo first thought of the idea for Monte Forte, it took quite an effort to persuade me to put my traditional plans on hold. But I understood his vision, so I took a gap year, and we transformed a horse box, retro fitting it to create a mobile pizza van.
We had a great time catering for parties, food fairs, weddings and so many events across the UK. It was quite a simple concept at that point. But we had a lot of followers and quite quickly reached our limit, so with the encouragement from our business partner Dan, we found the Reigate site for our first restaurant.
It was a whirlwind. Three gap years later, we were celebrating our 3rd anniversary and opening our first restaurant in Reigate, Surrey.
It was carnage! We went from a business that was simple, to managing all the complexities of a restaurant. For the first six months I don’t think myself or my brother did anything other than work or stress about work – I was just 21. It was fun, I learnt a lot and it has made me the person I am today
The perfect pause….
Then Covid happened and it allowed us to rethink everything, from the way we lay the tables to how the company operates. We had time to breathe, and this is where I moved to a more operational role. As Head of Operations, I was overseeing everything from how the sites are run, to payroll, finance and marketing, pushing ahead with the strategy rather than being at the coal face.
As you stepped away from the business – did you manage to find a strong team to lead each site?
It’s taken a long time. We’ve learned a lot and we made a lot of mistakes along the way. It took a while to establish the right culture, but we have a fantastic guy called Adam who oversees all our sites.
He has everything at his disposal to make sure they function and continue to flourish. I don’t like to micro-manage. I like to let someone develop into a role and if necessary, adjust with constructive feedback. This has been fundamental to Adam’s achievements. He moves with autonomy, implementing what he knows needs to be done, with our total support behind him.
Do you think that management style has been key to the success of the business?
The success and failures, yes…we maybe let loose a little too much at the start!
I really love my life, it’s incredibly difficult sometimes, but I love seeing our staff progress and I can see what Monte Forte will become, every single day.
There are three key pillars we focus on as a business:
Pizza, passion and people
This is fundamental to everything we do. We use this to help everyone understand the core ethos of the business.
What has been your biggest failure?
For me it’s not asking enough questions. Asking questions and learning is the most important thing …ever…all the time... you must keep learning all the time, everyday!
But I also believe it’s important to learn from our mistakes and to realise failure isn’t fatal and that success isn’t final.
What’s the most successful decision you feel you made?
I think starting our first restaurant in Reigate set the tone. It was a pivotal moment for the business.
We will always cherish that site. People say ‘Horsham, is bigger it’s a flagship’, but in my opinion Reigate is the icon and it’s always going to be.
One day, I’d love to make the Reigate store the Academy, where all employees go to learn the business. We want a bigger restaurant site in Reigate, that’s no secret!
Tell us more about the new Farnham site.
In May last year, we had our first site meeting with the project management team for our new, 1,800 sq. ft site in Farnham, working with the interior designer project team to work out how that site will look and feel.
Our strategy for the next five years is quite simple; we want to open three new restaurants in three years (this includes Farnham) followed by two years of consistency… we’ll then look to sell the business to a public company or private owner.
Recently, through our affiliation with Pilgrim Brewery, we started operating from their new site, The Hatch pub in Redhill. We struggled to know what to do when they approached us. We thought, but Reigate is just a mile away, surely not. But people love it. We operate there five days a week and hope to extend that soon.
And what’s next for Luca Malavasi?
Other passions…I don’t know yet…I love what we do…but I don’t know…working in hospitality, it’s a fascinating and rewarding thing, but I don’t know if I could do it forever. For now, my main priority is to make the businesses the best they can be, to see our staff flourish and to create an unrivalled experience and product.
Like any business, our people make the business. You see the progression of someone and it’s amazing. I love dealing with people and solving problems, I’m a big believer that everything has a solution.
From everything we’ve been through, it’s shown me that if we work hard (and we all do), well, we can have a very nice life and a nice business. Oh, and everything takes time!
But for now….
It’s going well, and although it’s difficult at times we haven’t had to try that hard to sell it. Take Reigate, this Easter we had our best week for the group of companies ever. It just makes me think…’what a business - people love it’.
We had an emergency a couple of weeks ago, so I stepped in and worked the Friday night in our Reigate restaurant. I was a bit nervous having not worked in a restaurant for ages, but it instilled in me why I’m still doing this. It was amazing to go back to that level and remember what it’s all about.
The music was great, the people are amazing, and the pizza stands up on its own!
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Luca for letting us interrupt his day. Wishing his team, the greatest success with the new Farnham site.
And if you go to Monte Forte soon, who knows it might be Luca who greets you at the door with his boundless energy and enthusiasm… if not you may find him somewhere inside enjoying his favourite Double American with honey!
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