Hi-tech path for Russell & Brand

by Andrew Sangster

Food, catering, leisure and retail are the industries you need to be in to expand a small company rapidly, suggests a survey on the UK's fastest-growing privately-owned businesses.

The survey, conducted by accountant Price Waterhouse and published in the Independent on Sunday newspaper, saw the lead that had been held by the computer industry for the past three years overturned.

Contract caterer Russell & Brand (R&B) was the fastest-growing food-related company, with an 87.2% surge in sales from 1993 to 1994, putting it in second place after media company Merlin Publishing. Seventeenth place went to Payne & Gunter.

And last week R&B issued results for the financial year to 1994, showing turnover up another 41%, from £20.53m to £28.96m. Profits on contract catering services were up 116% to £622,000, giving a slender return of 2.15%.

R&B chief executive Jerry Brand is continuing to seek ways of growing the company. His biggest push is into hi-tech solutions for his contract catering customers through R&B's sister company, Uniware Systems. Both companies come under the umbrella of the Brand Group.

Establishing Uniware dented the Brand Group's consolidated profit by £251,000, and would continue to hit profits over the next two years, said Mr Brand. After interest, operating profit before tax for 1994 was up 22.7% to £319,000.

The new services being marketed by Uniware include Caternet, a software package that allows clients to keep independent control over all catering operations with no need to involve a third party contractor.

Another innovation is a magnetic swipe card that can operate as a cashless system, called Nocash, and as an access control card, called Frontier.

Another key part of Mr Brand's strategy is the establishment of Corporate Supermarket, a one-stop shop delivery system linking the prices of food paid by a unit at the kitchen door to both the local cash-and-carry and supermarket's prices.

Mr Brand said the system would lead the contract catering industry away from the "confusing, and at times questionable practice of discounts associated with contractors' purchasing policies" and into a net pricing policy.