Capital focus

17 January 2003 by
Capital focus

Q Why did you start the company?
A We'd been thinking about it for some years. At Compass we were driven by purchasing commitments and profit pressures. The enjoyment had gone, individual creativity was lost and the flair to find solutions had been quashed.

Q What difficulties did you face in the early days?
A
Our Achilles' heel was the sales pipeline, as neither of us had worked in sales. We joined Business Link to get advice on sales and marketing and went on training courses. Our first contract, the National Gallery, came via a consultant's referral in March, and we're going to beat this year's target.

Q What sector are you aiming for and why?
A
Business and industry with 150-plus employees within Greater London. We're familiar with this market and physically we can remain close and keep overheads down.

Q What gives you the edge over your competitors?
A
Our skills. We know how to run restaurants. We have no bureaucracy, low overheads, and we don't dabble in discounts. We're an open company and operate on a fee basis. There's no off-the-shelf solution, but we spend a lot of time thinking of the client's needs before tendering. We've also employed a PR agency to get our name known by our target customers.

Q What trends do you see in staff feeding?
A
The café-bar and lighter options that cost clients less money will continue, and there'll be more commercial operations, even concessions.

Q Do you have staffing difficulties?
A
We pay well - chef-managers £20,000-£21,000 a year, general assistants £5.50-£7.25 an hour - so we don't have any recruitment problems. For this we expect ownership of the job: we don't have time to deal with petty difficulties and unmotivated staff.

Q What is your attitude towards training?
A
It's vital. We subscribe online to Learnpurple and work closely with staff at the start of a job. We are also both accredited trainers with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Q How do you view the trend towards deskilling?
A
It's a very short-term attitude. We all need to take responsibility for the skill generation coming up behind us, but if you deskill, it's a one-way route and difficult to re-establish quality.

Q What is your approach to purchasing?
A
We have no discount, pay suppliers on time and expect fair prices and good quality. Our fees are higher to compensate, but we operate an open accounting system.

Q What is your attitude towards food on the plate?
A
"Focus on food" is our motto, and we want to scotch the myth that chefs can be business managers as well as chefs. We're responsible for managing the business - let them get on with cooking and serving food. We want them in front of the stove, not the computer, and to achieve this we've made our management systems simple.

Q What is your philosophy towards clients?
A
Clients are customers and business partners. We listen to their views and respond to requirements; but they're paying us to manage, and if they were to drive the contract, we'd feel we'd failed.

Q What would you change if you were starting again?
A
We would bring in the PR agency from the beginning, because we'd have learnt about defining the market and ourselves earlier.

Q Who in the industry has inspired you?
A
Ian Anderson at Swallow Hotels, Anthony Adams at Compass and Marc Verstringhe, who founded the wonderful Catering & Allied.

Leeming Pilkington

LP House, 55 Harcombe Road, London N16 0RX
Tel: 020 7923 7700
Web site: www.leeming-pilkington.co.uk
Founded: January 2002 by Richard Leeming and Chris Pilkington
Initial funding: £60,000 from a private backer and £100,000 from the founders
Contracts: four
Staff: 12
Predicted turnover: £500,000

Richard Leeming

1980: HND in catering and institutional management, Leeds Polytechnic
1983: Swallow Hotels, graduate trainee
1985: London International hotel, assistant food and beverage manager
1990: Sutcliffe, general manager in the City of London
1998: Operations director, City
2000: Operations director, Home Counties

Chris Pilkington

1982: BA in hotel and catering management from Scottish Hotel Schools, part of Strathclyde University
1985: Swallow Hotels, graduate trainee
1990: British Telecom, London, hospitality manager
1991: General manager
1996: Sutcliffe, deputy general manager, City of London
1999: General manager
2000: Operations manager

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