A tale of two in the City

In the final part of our Trading Places series, looking at the different challenges of similar jobs, catering managers from two Gardner Merchant contracts swap stories on their jobs. Carmen Konopka listens in

The salad bars alone offered by Debbie Loxley and Richard Priestley epitomise the differences in their jobs as catering managers for two London corporate headquarters.

At City accountancy firm Coopers & Lybrand, where Loxley heads the catering operation, the colourful salads look like jewels, arranged in stylish bowls within a black marble chilled display unit.However, at News International, the newspaper publisher in Wapping, where Priestley is general manager of catering, salads occupy half the space and are arranged in simple wells within a refrigerated counter.

Priestley comments to Loxley: "We've got the same selection, but yours looks tremendous because it's not all crammed together."

Loxley and Priestley both work for Gardner Merchant - in the Directors Table and London Citation divisions, respectively - but their jobs vary considerably because of the different styles of their client companies.

Both sites employ around 4,000 people, but while the accountancy firm's staff is virtually all white-collar, the newspaper company's personnel also includes craftsmen and manual workers such as printers. In addition, Coopers & Lybrand's building is glossy and stylish while News International's is more functional.

Differences In Style

These differences of style make an impact on the menus in the staff dining rooms of the two firms.

Loxley explains: "There is always something trendy on our menu, although we also offer traditional dishes. For instance, we might offer tuna steaks with salsa, or falafel in pitta bread."

Priestley says: "Ours is very traditional, with a carvery every day, and we find pies, curry, chilli and staples like lasagne sell very well." However, he adds: "We have always tended to lean towards the needs of the production guys in the past, and made sure we've got things like chips and baked beans on the menu. But we have recently done a customer profiling exercise and found there is a also need for lighter food."

As a result, there will be a revised menu, with salad bar and pizza and pasta bar, when the 450-seat restaurant at News International is refurbished later this year. The linoleum flooring and fixed table-and-chair units will also disappear and Priestley hopes his restaurant will move closer in style to the 230-seat restaurant at Coopers & Lybrand, where there is modern light wood and aluminium furniture, with marble and carpeted floors.

However, it is unlikely that he will be able to make the menu altogether like the one at Coopers & Lybrand, where chips are served only twice a week. "I wish I could put chips on every other day," he says, "but I know we'd be lynched if they weren't on every day."

Apart from the menu and decor, there are other significant differences in catering between the two organisations, not least the hours. Loxley's team of 51, mainly full-time, works Monday to Friday, 7am until 5-6pm, with the addition of evening functions. Priestley's team of 65 full- and part-timers works seven days a week, 24 hours a day to cover the needs of night-time production staff as well as those of journalists, advertising reps and office workers.

"Everything operates at speed," adds Priestley. "About half of our lunches are take-aways because people take them to their desks to eat."

When a big story breaks, the catering staff have to step up their efforts in line with those of the newspaper staff. "Princess Diana's death caused the most frenetic activity," he says.

More Predictable

At Coopers & Lybrand, demands on catering are more predictable. Loxley says that only 20-25% of meals are eaten at desks, although the shop also sells snacks and sandwiches which staff take away. She adds that the only time catering staff have to work really late is Budget Day.

However, Loxley has a different challenge to face - corporate entertaining. Coopers & Lybrand has 16 dining rooms used for entertaining at breakfast, lunch and dinner. "We have a team of three chefs who only work on the requirements for the private dining rooms," says Loxley. "The food we offer is on a par with anything you'll find in a restaurant."

Typical dishes include corn-fed chicken with bean purée, oyster mushrooms and roasted pearl onions; seared salmon with wild mushroom ragout, Swiss chard, butternut squash and red wine jus; and tornedos of lamb with lemon-scented spinach and roast potatoes.

At News International there is less emphasis on corporate entertaining, with there being only one 12-seat executive dining room. "We tailor-make a menu to whoever is hosting the lunch," says Priestley. "On the whole they like simple, plain food - mainly fish, chicken and lamb. Because the company is influenced by America, people will often ask for food to be grilled or poached, with sauces served separately."

At both companies there are meeting rooms which the catering departments also service. Loxley's team serves about 1,000 teas and coffees daily, plus as many as 250 working lunches to the 80 meeting rooms. At News International, there are fewer conference rooms and Priestley's team does about 250 beverages and a variable number of working lunches.

Both Loxley and Priestley operate subsidised facilities, but both also come under pressure to save money where possible.

Loxley explains that she was able to make savings by reducing the choice to three main courses at lunch, plus jacket potatoes with a filling of the day, a choice of 10 salad bowls and eight salad protein items, plus snack items. She adds that she has done an exercise on nil cost to the client in the staff restaurant, but feels that raising prices to the extent required would drive customers away.

Priestley has been through the same exercise and also feels it would be too revolutionary to remove subsidies altogether. However, he has also managed to cut costs. One money-saving measure was to shut the staff restaurant between 2am and 7am. "We needed four people behind the counter and two chefs," he says. "Instead, we offer hot pies, tea and coffee and sandwiches all night in our shop - with only one person on duty."

Average spend in Coopers & Lybrand's restaurant is £2.20, whereas it is only £1.35 at News International.

Priestley points out that his average spend is dragged down by the numbers of people buying just coffee (25p) or tea (20p). He adds that these beverages are sold at nil cost to his client. By contrast, tea and coffee at Coopers & Lybrand are free to staff. Loxley comments: "We run a cashless system and our vending is not at nil cost to the client because it would be very expensive to put card readers on 56 vending machines."

Despite providing free standard tea and coffee, Loxley has also introduced a cappuccino machine. At 65p per cup, it caters for staff who would otherwise bring in coffee from the multitude of cafés nearby. It was thought the machine would look out of place in the entrance foyer, so it is located less conveniently on the first floor. Nonetheless, it is dispensing around 160 cups per day and Loxley is considering installing a second machine in the restaurant.

Priestley, too, plans to install a cappuccino machine in a new coffee shop when his restaurant is refurbished.

Meanwhile, there is one big difference between the two sites in terms of beverages. Because staff have to pay for drinks at News International, some offices have kettles. But at Coopers & Lybrand they are completely banned. Loxley explains: "Kettles wouldn't fit in with our image."