Eaton marches on

In the past three years, the Eaton Group has doubled its size from a £7m to £15m turnover, and from 30 to 60 contracts. This followed the arrival of managing director Alan Walker in 1997, called in to reposition the company whose focus on B& I had become lost through taking on contracts from the education sector.

It was something Walker and his team of Chris Towler, chef development director, and Paul Greenwood, sales director, had already done twice before. In 1989 they took J Lyons' contract catering division from 0-20 contracts in two years, and then moved on to Summit, increasing business from 30 to 120 contracts and from £3m to £14m turnover in six years.

So what's their secret? "Besides having a clear vision, develop a good business team and keep the company regionalised," advises Walker, an ex-Gardner Merchant (Sodexho) man. "The vision for Eaton was to look at trends that would last at least five years, giving us the chance to establish long-term partnerships with clients and consultants."

Walker's aim was to take the best from the high street and replace the ordinary staff restaurant with an environment that would keep employees on-site. Under the brand of Eaton Marche, 10 eating outlets, offering food categories like sizzling salads and pizzas and pasta, were introduced.

"There's no subsidised canteen culture now. Customers feel the surroundings are like a restaurant and if the quality is right they'll pay the same price as the high street. This is why we're achieving client gross profit of 30-50%," says Walker, whose plan is to keep the customer on-site by offering banking, gymnasium and retail shopping services.

The clients are mainly blue-chip organisations such as Ernst & Young at London Waterloo, with 5,000 people and a turnover of £2.2m. Walker is adamant the company will keep its London base.

"There's plenty of business in London, and when you grow nationally it dilutes the management and strength of the company," he says. "We'd only look at business outside if the client was based in London and there was enough group business for us to sustain an area team. This happened recently when we won Compass's first global contract, Unisys, with four regional sites catering for 2,500 people and a turnover of £1.5m."

Walker's five-year plan, introduced in 1997, aims to achieve turnover of £20.5m and 73 contracts by 2002. Projections for 2001 put it ahead with £19m turnover and 68 contracts.

"We can't stand still," says Walker. "This month we unveil the next generation of Eaton Marche with 20 new food headings, including organic and vegetarian express outlets. In March we move into a new business and resource centre near the City of London which will give us a larger production kitchen. This will help us expand Fine Dining, our directors' dining room business," says Walker, who intends to expand the company organically, but doesn't rule out acquisition.

As far as being sold itself, Walker explains: "The three shareholders are not allowed to sell externally - we can only sell to each other or other team members. This way we'll pass it down to those coming up the ranks, rather like an internal management buyout."

Next week: Charlton House and Le Bistro