Solid as Stone
As regional director of Trusthouse Forte, Clive Stone was chuffed when the company won the catering contract at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham in 1985. Soon afterwards, however, following a change of policy, THF withdrew from the contract.
This so annoyed Stone that, when the contract came up again in 1987, he left THF, founded Redcliffe Catering with a loan of £150,000 from the Business Expansion Scheme, and bid for the business. It proved a wise decision - after he won the contract, his first year's turnover topped £1m, and now stands at £12.5m.
In 1988, Stone bought the Centennial Centre in Edgbaston and spent £1m on modernising it. "I was confident we had a viable business," he says. "The centre was in an ideal location, and it was on the market at a good price. I had a lot of faith and a good bank manager." Last year, he added the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists to his list of corporate venues.
In 1993, he started an events management division (turnover, £2.5m), which now handles 30-40 events a week, and his latest project, launched last October, is a contract catering division. This already has 31 contracts, 15 with schools, and has a predicted turnover of more than £5m for 2001.
The Botanical Gardens and the Centennial Centre proved to be the bedrocks for Stone's fine-dining division, culminating in winning the contract to cater for the G8 nations' summit in 1998. "There was a trust that we would be able to provide the food and the infrastructure for this occasion," says Stone, who attended 127 meetings for the event over the preceding nine months.
Business at the Botanical Gardens is 60% social and 40% business, while at the Centennial Centre it is almost the opposite, with 30% social and 70% business. The Botanical Gardens, which holds individual and family events such as a Father's Day buffet and a Midsummer Night dinner, is the busiest venue for civil weddings in Birmingham outside register offices.
"We're always looking at how we can develop new markets, and are now training our chefs in other cuisines such as Asian and Caribbean," says Stone. "Clients are asking for new dishes, and there is a large ethnic market which we ignore at our peril."
He admits that he started the contract catering operation under pressure from clients who attended special functions and asked him to quote for their staff catering. Growth has been brisk, with seven new contracts opening in the past two months, bringing the total to 31. "Contract catering adds balance to the company, and the three divisions synergise off each other," says Stone. "Nearly 30% of our chefs in the contract catering division will work on banquets on the fine-dining side, and vice versa. It's all about flexibility of labour and spreading the skill base as wide as we can."
On the record
Why are you interested in the schools market? Since self-funding came in, this is a growing market. We'll have opened 15 in the past 12 months. But we'd rather grow at a realistic pace, so we're only targeting schools with the same ethos as us in wanting added value for pupils. I'd rather walk away from a contract than risk our reputation, even if it costs money.
Will you ever sell? No. Our philosophy is to remain independent and develop a share option scheme for senior management. I'm only 50 and an employable workaholic. I love the business so much that there's no way I'd go. The driving force is not profit; we're driven by quality of standards and service. If you get this aspect right, profits will come. We don't want to be the biggest.
Redcliffe Catering
Centennial Centre, 100 Icknield Port Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B16 0AA.
Tel: 0121-456 4545
www.redcliffe.com
Turnover: £12.5m
Staff: 550
Founded: 1987 by Clive Stone, managing director
Initial funding: Business Expansion Scheme borrowings of £150,000
Next week: Houston & Church, and Harrison
