How Bubala chose Blink over Slack and built a culture across every site

Meet Bubala

Bubala is the London restaurant group rewriting Middle Eastern cuisine, with bold, vegetable-led plates served across Soho, Spitalfields, and King's Cross. Bright rooms, lively service, and a team that genuinely brings the vibes.

As Bubala grew from one site to three, the people team needed a way to keep everyone connected across kitchens, floors, and shifts. The obvious choice was Slack. Most growing hospitality groups land there by default.

Sierra McVey, People Manager at Bubala, was about to do the same. Then she found Blink, and the calculus changed.

"I think the engagement, the fun engagement that the team really get involved with, posting fun pictures. I think before we moved to Blink, it was very much a workplace communication forum instead of adding a little bit of personality and cross department bonding."

Sierra McVey, People Manager, Bubala

The problem: a comms tool, not a culture tool

Bubala's previous setup did the basics. Operational updates went out. Schedules got shared. But none of it felt like Bubala. The platform was a functional forum, not a place where the team actually wanted to spend time.

For a hospitality brand built on warmth and personality, that gap mattered. The team's energy is the product. If comms felt corporate, that energy didn't travel between sites.

Slack would have solved the message-distribution problem. It wouldn't have solved the culture problem. So when Sierra came across Blink, with its mobile-first feed, Stories, and Hub built specifically for frontline teams, she made the switch.

One feed, three sites, every team in on the vibe

Blink became Bubala's single home for comms and culture. Stories, Blink's Instagram-style format, quickly became the heart of how the team shares moments across sites. Bubala is now the second-heaviest user of Stories across every Blink customer.

Chefs post pre-service notes. Managers share menu updates. Team members invite each other to gigs. Personality lives alongside operations, not separate from it.

"The stories, for sure. And the hub? Are you joking?"

Sierra McVey, People Manager, Bubala

The result: cross-site bonding and a sense of fun

The shift hasn't just been about communication. It's been about culture, and the usage numbers show it. 99% of Bubala's 138 team members have activated. 98% are active every month. The average user opens Blink 14 times a day. 61% engage with the feed.

But the real win is harder to measure. Sierra sees it every shift.

"A sense of fun, people bonding across sites, inviting people to gigs that they're going to. Hospitality is big with artists. So being able to really not only focus on hospitality in our job, but how do we connect and move forward together."

Sierra McVey, People Manager, Bubala

For Bubala, that's the whole point. Connect, and move forward together.