SOCIAL Bite, the sandwich shop chain run by social entrepreneur Josh Littlejohn, has presided over a flying start to its new corporate catering division.

The company, which gives jobs to the homeless and donates all of its profits to charity, said the offshoot earned nearly £200,000 in revenue in its first six months of operation.

Mr Littlejohn said the move into corporate catering in July was a "logical step" for his Edinburgh-based business, which he set up with partner Alice Thompson two and a half years ago.

The division is now seen as the key profit driver of the company, with the cafes serving as a "shop window" to build brand awareness and opportunities to employ people.

Mr Littlejohn said: "We knew that there are lots of big companies that are increasingly engaged with social responsibility, behaving ethically and all this kind of thing. So we thought this would be an easy win for them.

"They are already buying the sandwiches so if they choose to buy them for us it ticks that box. It's a really ethical decision but they also get really good quality food that's priced competitively, so they don't have to make a big sacrifice in order to do it.

"It has been six months since we penetrated it and there has been some really rapid growth."

Mr Littlejohn, who has enticed Bill Clinton and Sir Richard Branson to speak at his annual Scottish Business Awards in Edinburgh, admits the company had to overcome an initial reluctance from blue chip clients in the early days.

Its early customers were charities and third sector organisations, and as its reputation grew bigger companies began to come on board.

Having launched the successful Scottish Business Awards, now in their fourth year, Mr Littlejohn was able to bring some top level contacts into play as he sought to get the business off the ground.

But once major companies such as PwC and Deloitte began using its services, Mr Littlejohn said business "snowballed". JP Morgan and Pinsent Masons are among its other clients.

He said: "Once you get a few it seems to snowball, and I suppose word of mouth spread throughout the corporate community, and we expanded it."

Now the business is poised for further growth with a move into on-site catering .

Mr Littlejohn revealed the firm has just secured a contract to provide catering to 800 construction staff at Brookfield Multiplex, which is building a hospital for sick children in Edinburgh.

The food provided to Social Bite Catering, largely breakfast and sandwich platters, is created at the company's central production in Livingston, where 20 of its 45 staff are employed.

In charge of menu creation is Mike Mathieson, partner and consultant chef to top-rated restaurant operator Chez Roux.

Currently 14 of its staff come from a background of homelessness or selling The Big Issue.

And there is scope to boost that number as Social Bite plans to open its first sandwich shops in Aberdeen and Dundee in the first half of the year.

It currently has two sandwich shops in Glasgow and two in Edinburgh.

Mr Littlejohn, who received a £200,000 capital boost from Sir Tom Hunter last year, said: "We've got the model now where we can tap right into all the corporate clients there [in Aberdeen] and after that we want to open in Dundee and Newcastle. Hopefully the social outcomes that we create can just be multiplied as we grow."

Asked how he goes about taking on staff, Mr Littlejohn explains the process is organic. His first employee was a 21 year old, Pete, who sold the Big Issue outside its cafe on Edinburgh's Rose Street, who started out washing dishes for two hours a day.

"He was so delighted to have the job, and loved the whole thing about having colleagues and a routine so much that he used to stay for eight hours a day, even though he was only being paid for two. When a full-time position came up, it made sense we should really give it to Pete."

Pete then recommended his brother Joe, which in turn led to further recommendations. "It works largely through referral by people who already work for us," Mr Littlejohn said.

"The network works really well because the guys referring their friends don't want to recommend anyone who... will let them down.

"The other thing we do is suspended food and coffee, where you as a customer can come in and buy your own lunch and your own coffee, but you can also pre-pay for anything on the menu and rather than you actually getting the product it goes in a wicker basket by the till, which homeless can come in and have for free. We get a steady stream of homeless people coming in throughout the day. We naturally get to know them and when the opportunity arises we can try and offer them a job."