Countrywide's challenge
SCHOOL, nursing home and hospital caterers watch out: Countrywide Catering Distributors is after your business.
This was one of the messages to emerge from the group's recent conference held at the Birmingham Metropole hotel.
The one-day event brought together members of Countrywide, their suppliers and the caterers who form the company's customer base in a forum entitled Quality Above All.
Countrywide sales director Nigel Blackburn told delegates that radical changes taking place in schools and hospitals gave caterers there greater budgetary control, and presented a huge opportunity for the company.
"We must go and look for this business. We must add schools and colleges to our databases, we must target them for special attention," Mr Blackburn said.
Nursing homes, where requirements were stable unlike those of hotels, presented a similar opportunity, he added.
Countrywide chairman John Ford reported turnover for 1993 of £169.5m, a 13% increase over the 1992 figure. Looking ahead, Ford anticipated an even more buoyant 1994, with a projected turnover of £190m at the year-end.
Ford reminded the conference of some of the deals secured by Countrywide over the past few months. These included a three-year contract with Gardner Merchant, a two-and-a-half year deal with Compass, the renewal of Countrywide's Allied Breweries contract and business gained with Whitbread.
But despite success with large accounts, Ford insisted that this business was not at the expense of maintaining a quality service for smaller customers.
"Don't let us forget the significance of smaller contracts. While we all rightly get excited about the larger account wins, the private and industrial customers we have are at the very heart of our business."
Continuing with the theme of quality, managing director Clive Lomax announced that Countrywide had just achieved BS5750 quality standard accreditation. He praised suppliers who had notched up sales worth £1m with the company. British Sugar and Dawn Foods gained special awards from Countrywide.
