Hitting the spot
After a couple of months of relative quiet, things have suddenly begun to look very good for Carlton Catering Partnership. A new restaurant concept has been revealed and new business is coming in.
"You don't have to be big to be clever" might be the slogan of some small contract caterers - but not of Carlton Catering Partnership. Instead, managing director John Salisbury prefers to say the partnership has simply developed a product that suits the market it is in.
He is referring to what he admits is one of the most significant steps forward since the business was formed four years ago. By the end of the month the partnership hopes to have opened Hot Spots! - a modular restaurant concept where the client determines the configuration of feeding areas, according to needs, from a range of options.
It will go live on 1 June at the Hillhouse industrial site at Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, where six separate companies occupy the same site, but all use the staff restaurant owned by one of the companies. As part of this existing arrangement, a contribution to the running cost of the restaurant is paid by five companies to the sixth.
Under the new arrangement, Carlton will not only run the restaurant, but also collect the contributions towards the running costs. Each of the six businesses will pay Carlton an annual standing charge.
Salisbury explains that this makes sense to everyone. "We are the caterer for the whole site, so we now run the food operation entirely. We have provided the funding for the new Hot Spots! restaurant in return for the contract to run the site and the annual management fee from each of the six clients." The size of that fee depends on the size of each of the six companies.
What makes Hot Spots! different from a normal branded foodservice operation is that it is based on portable cabin construction. Working with Lancashire-based kitchen designer CHR Equipment, Carlton has developed a range of building options.
Salisbury explains how the system works. "We can bolt together whatever aspects of the Hot Spots! concept is needed. At Hillhouse, we have to cater for about 1,000 customers involved mainly in process work and they want tasty, familiar, but quick-serve food.
"We're putting in a module of Hot Spots! at Hillhouse that combines familiar menu items, such as all-day breakfasts and burgers, with take-away sandwiches."
Staff will be given new uniforms in keeping with the relaxed image of quick-serve. Baseball caps will replace mop caps and bright colours are being used in the tunics.
Agreeing on the name Hot Spots! was, admits business development manager Colin Edge, one of the hardest parts of designing the concept. "We had the working title of Colin's Cabin, which was fine for the development stage, but when we began to brainstorm real names we filled the board with all sorts of wacky names.
"We settled on Hot Spots! because it offers variations, such as Cold Spots for a salad bar or Spot Bargain for a budget meal."
The original menu idea was that there would be lots of variations on beefburgers such as cheeseburgers and double-burgers. The fuss over BSE has caused a sudden broadening of the menu to include buns filled with tuna-melt and lentil-burgers.
Because of the modular form of construction, the new restaurant units will arrive on the back of a truck, then be craned on to a site next to the existing staff restaurant before being fitted out with kitchen equipment and restaurant seating.
It will take two weeks from unloading the truck to the first day of going live, including staff training. The former restaurant will close on a Friday afternoon, with Hot Spots! opening at 7.30am the following Monday morning.
There is an air of optimism tinged with a sadness this week at Carlton Catering. It is moving headquarters out of the historic house at Winnington, Cheshire, which has been its head office since the company was founded four years ago.
The partnership is going seven miles down the road to a modern office building in Winsford. The move has been prompted solely by Carlton's expansion and the lack of space to expand at Winnington Hall.
"We took on a new member of staff this month and struggled to find somewhere to put a desk for her. This is a lovely old building, but we need more space," says Salisbury.
As regards new business, Colin Edge has a frustrating story to tell this month. He has just lost out at the wire on a significant tender because the potential client decided at the last minute it was safer to go with one of the big players in contract catering.
"It's as if they believe that because we aren't an international Plc we might not be able to deliver a consistent quality product. We met the price requirement and the quality requirement, but the man making the decision wanted a big name."
Is Edge sanguine about this, as merely part of the swings and roundabouts of tender-bidding? "No, I'm not sanguine; I'm bloody annoyed."
However, the grin returns when he reveals that a couple of weeks ago the company won a new contract as the result of a sheer fluke.
Nicky Ankers, newly recruited into tele-sales, made a cold call to British Vita, a foam-rubber manufacturer in Manchester, and asked if they were thinking of taking on a new catering company? They were.
Edge followed up the lead with a visit, and a proposal followed a few days later. An invitation from the company for more detailed discussions came within days and, 18 days from that first cold call, the deal was signed.
Does Edge wish all contract bids were as simple and quick? "Definitely not; my job in selling would get boring. I enjoy a tough fight."
Salisbury stares politely across the boardroom table: "I have to disagree."
Last visit to Carlton Catering Partnership: 6 June
