De Jager joins Farmstand

Former Caravan head of people Elsa De Jager has joined Farmstand as head of people and culture, MCA understands.

De Jager left Caravan in August after a year and a half.

She was previously a director or Paper to Plate Hospitality Consulting, and owner of Source Battersea.

Farmstand, a sustainable fast-casual café-restaurant concept, opened its second site in 390 Cabot Square Canary Wharf in early 2019, with a third forthcoming at the Southbank Place development, also owned by the Canary Wharf group.

The Steven Novick-led company secured £2.3m last year from Kindred Capital to fund its expansion.

As well as flagship restaurants, Farmstand has a growing corporate partnership business, with an overall target of corporate cafés.

Farmstand’s board of directors includes Laura Gutowski, head of strategy at Pret, and Mark Wood, former CTO of graze.com.

Advisors include Nick Candler, former COO of Pret, Nick Green, former head of sales at Deliveroo, Kate Whitelock, former head of commercial marketing at ASOS.com and Rebecca Williams, former head of social media at Converse.