Portfolio power
Mark Miller is standing in an Edinburgh church chatting with his new partner, Alan Duff. It's an unlikely pairing. Not so long ago they were rivals aiming to carve out their own catering territories in Scotland, but today their new company, Heritage Portfolio, is feeding the 300 guests who have come to see how the church has been transformed into the Mansfield Traquair Centre (see below).
The young company is the result of a "strategic" merger of hospitality firms Heritage Hospitality and Portfolio Catering last October. Portfolio Catering was the older of the two companies. Miller was only 27 when he founded it in his mother's kitchen in 1993 with just £5,000. Nine years later it had 60 full-time staff, a £2m annual turnover and a roster of 10 venues. A self-taught chef, Miller said of the merger: "It's a progression from caterer to event planner. You're creating events. It's much more exciting and creative."
The second company, Heritage Hospitality, was founded in January 2002 by Chris Robinson, former head of Wheatsheaf Catering and current chief executive of Heart of Midlothian Football Club.
Strong executive line-up
As well as Miller and Robinson, who is chairman of the newly enlarged company, Heritage Portfolio's executive team includes Ian D'Annunzio-Green, a former Scottish operations manager for Sodexho Prestige, and Alan Duff, who helped develop and manage Wheatsheaf venues such as Edinburgh Castle and Culzean Castle. Put together, the team has more than 80 years' experience in hospitality.
Explaining how the merger came about, Duff says Heritage Hospitality had secured two venues before eyeing up rival Portfolio's prestigious range. The company approached Miller with the idea of staging joint events.
"We knew them; they knew us," says Duff, "which is the nature of business here in Scotland. We got chatting, realised that we could both benefit from the infrastructures we had, and realised we'd fit well together. We knew we were going to be in direct competition, so we thought, ‘Do we slug it out or join forces?'."
The initial talks led to a full merger, which the directors say caused no redundancies. Heritage Portfolio now has 90 full-time staff.
As its name suggests, the directors behind Heritage Portfolio are no strangers to staging events in rarefied surroundings. The company is the exclusive or preferred caterer and event manager at about 14 venues in and around Edinburgh. Under a typical agreement, the client pays the owners of the venue for its use and Heritage Portfolio for the event and catering. Heritage Portfolio then pays between 10% and 20% of its catering bill to the venue.
The company is moving into new office space in Leith, Midlothian, this month, including 4,500sq ft of production kitchens. Miller said the company wouldn't be chasing new business in the next 12 months but using it as a period of consolidation. The company will maintain its rate of about 6,000 events a year - that's more than 16 events a day.
Miller denies that the exclusive agreements Heritage Portfolio has with up to eight sites restrict choice, in that clients are not able to choose venue and caterer separately. "We've had to demonstrate how we can offer more than the competition. The Heritage-type venues need people who are used to working in a particular type of place. When you're doing it all the time, you get good at it."
Most of the venues have kitchens and, in the case of Mansfield Traquair, the company was lucky enough to design the type of kitchens it wanted. In contrast, at Edinburgh's Royal Museum, Heritage Portfolio does not use the kitchens. It has staged 750-seat dinners in the main gallery, when, following its closure at 5pm, tables, chairs, cutlery and food are all transported to the museum in a military-style operation.
Exploiting local connections
Miller says the company faced competition from Le Bistro Hospitality and small caterers such as Pinkertons, but adds: "When it comes to doing larger events, if it wasn't us, you'd be going to the multinationals. We are independent and we are Scottish."
Unrestricted by central purchasing, the company can use local suppliers, Miller says.
The directors believe they are well placed to weather the economic slow-down and predict a turnover of £3m for this year. "In a downturn, companies don't stop entertaining; they just get a lot more specific," says Duff. Rather than entertaining 150 clients, companies focus on their 75 key ones but spend a similar amount of money, he adds.
"The type of events we do tend to be one-offs," says Duff. "They've got one shot at impressing their audience. We work closely with them to make sure they achieve what they set out to do, making sure their company or product stands out in the mind of a client. This builds loyalty."
Recent clients include Microsoft, Spanish newspaper La Gaceta de los Negocios, film production company Buena Vista, whisky producer Glenmorangie and a Spanish sales team for Bacardi rum.
Mansfield Traquair Centre
Walk into the Mansfield Traquair Centre in Edinburgh and you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Florence. Concealed for more than 50 years, vivid Renaissance-inspired murals of trumpeting angels and heavenly choirs by artist Phoebe Anna Traquair now glow from every surface of the 19th-century Norman-style former church.
And it's Heritage Portfolio that has won the contract to market and cater for events at the former church. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), which has leased the building for 21 years, hopes that events run by the newly formed catering and special events company will help pay for the building's maintenance costs.
"They've seen the commercial sense of opening their doors, albeit on a select basis to particular groups," says Heritage Portfolio chief executive Alan Duff.
It's a far cry from the long-term neglect, vandalism and extensive water damage the church suffered following its deconsecration. At one time it housed a nightclub called Caf‚ Graffiti, until neighbouring residents complained about the noise.
The Mansfield Traquair Trust raised the money for the £5.5m restoration, including £3.8m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The SCVO is now installed in modern offices beneath the nave.
Last month Heritage Portfolio hosted an evening for more than 300 of Edinburgh's movers and shakers to showcase the venue. The SCVO has a close working relationship with the caterer and vets events to make sure they are compatible with the interests of the charity, according to its director of services, Graham Young. The venue has hosted about 12 events so far, including public concerts and dinner-dances held by the Tango Society.
Heritage Portfolio
Hopetoun House, South Queensferry, West Lothian EH30 9SL
Tel: 0131-319 2929
Fax: 0131-319 2910
Before the merger, Portfolio Catering had sales of about £2m and Heritage Hospitality turned over about £1m. The company predicts its combined annual turnover of £3m for 2003 will rise to £3.6m in 2003-04. Heritage Hospitality brought three contracts to the merger: Hopetoun House (above), Dalmeny House and Mansfield Traquair. Portfolio Catering brought the rest.
Heritage Portfolio's venues in Edinburgh
\ Dalmeny House
* Mansfield Traquair
\ Signet Library
\ Royal College of Surgeons
\ Assembly Rooms
\ Merchant's Hall
\ National Museums of Scotland
\ Royal College of Physicians
\ Royal Society of Edinburgh
Near Edinburgh
* Musselburgh Race Course
\ Hopetoun House
\ Kirknewton Stables
\ Oxenfoord Castle
\ Falkirk Wheel
