The captain's tables

HMS Belfast has been given a spit and polish worth £200,000 in order to keep its hospitality trade afloat. Jane Baker went aboard to see the results.

Logistics is the key word when catering aboard HMS Belfast. The warship, for which Sodexho Prestige has held the £1.2m special events contract for 15 years, is permanently moored on the Thames in the shadow of London Bridge, and features gangways so narrow that equipment must be taken apart and reassembled on-site, a galley not much larger than a domestic kitchen, flood sills on each doorway preventing trolley access, and the occasional gun emplacement to trip the unwary.

Aside from the Walrus Caf‚, a public eatery which accounts for only 3% of the turnover, it is the hospitality trade that keeps HMS Belfast afloat, financially speaking. Using four function rooms and the deck, business is steadily increasing, with turnover for December rising from £140,000 in 1998 to £250,000 in 2000. September is its busiest month, with near-100% occupancy, dropping to 10% in January and rising to average 75% in summer. Sodexho pays a percentage of sales, plus room hire rate, to the Imperial War Museum, which owns the ship.

"The key is getting the mix right and matching the right function to the right room," says general manager Martin Bunch, who has a sales team responsible for marketing the catering facilities. "Clients are mainly City-based, which accounts for the fact that most functions are held during the week and start at 6.30pm. Our main targets are investment banks, but now we've been granted a civil wedding licence we're building that side up. One of our first wedding bookings was for Edwina Currie in May."

Sodexho recently invested £200,000 in re-equipping and refurbishing the galleys and dining rooms. This included £40,000 spent on improving the central galley and five holding areas adjacent to the function rooms. To meet modern hygiene and general working practices, all flooring and equipment was replaced. The main galley, which produces 400 meals from an area large enough to hold only four people, still had 1955-vintage flooring with tiles small enough to flex with the movement of the ship.

"The main problem is moving the food from the galley to the holding areas alongside each function room," explains Bunch. "Originally, we had no refrigeration in these rooms and, as the galley was three decks below, food was moved up and down on an ancient manual hoist - part of the original ship's fitting. Timing was critical in getting food to the holding area and then to the table at the right temperature."

Space restrictions on the ship made delivery of new equipment difficult. New fridges had to be lifted aboard and lowered through a hole in the deck, which was then resealed. Other equipment, such as dishwashers and ovens, could not negotiate the tangle of pipes and ducting which reduced gangway width to a mere 550mm at some points, and had to be taken apart and reassembled.

There is still the logistical problem of getting food from the main galley to the holding areas alongside the function rooms. Between the cooker and the guest lies a warren of narrow corridors linked by doors with ankle-high flood sills, across which trolleys cannot pass. "All our staff receive training on how to lift loads," says Bunch, "but we're especially careful here because crates of beer and wine all have to be lifted over the sills."

He had hoped to convert the holding area alongside the Admiral's Quarters, which are the furthest from the galley, into a self-sufficient cooking area, but was defeated by the problems of providing air extraction. "This room is the only one that has to be reached by climbing down the original ladder from the deck," he says, "which adds to the challenge of serving the food."

All four hospitality rooms were redecorated and recarpeted. The Ward Room, once the officers' dining room, holds as many as 120 people for a reception. The Ship's Company Dining Hall, formerly the ship's mess, is the largest room, seating 140. The Gun Room, seating 70, was created by Sodexho 10 years ago to provide more space. The rooms all have original paintings of ships at war and other relics of an earlier age, such as boxes set into the walls of the Ward Room to take officers' napkins. The smallest is the Admiral's Quarters, at the stern of the ship, seating 15-20 people at a long table. Sodexho invested £40,000 in refurbishing the area in keeping with the 1950s look.

Functions range from a five-course dinner for 20 in the Admiral's Quarters, at £97.50 per person and including wines, cigars, a tour of the ship and a piper, to Christmas dinner at £39.75, to a finger buffet on deck costing from £15.50 to £19.50 per person. Individual rooms cost from £170 to £480, and hire of the entire warship is £1,700.

A typical day begins with two breakfast meetings for 15 and 30, followed by three lunches and a conference with three dinners and a reception for 200 people. "There are so many eateries in the area that our menus must reflect this, such as serving bangers and mash, but we give it a trendy feel by using large white plates," says Bunch. "We'd like to plate all the food but we haven't the space in the galley nor the means of transporting it to the function room plated."

HMS Belfast is a major tourist attraction and this has to be taken into consideration when organising special events. "Part of being a manager is overcoming problems such as having the occasional tourist stray into the function room, or having only half-an-hour to get food served on deck after the tourists have gone," says Bunch. "The deck menu tends to be a finger buffet that can be quickly prepared and safely brought from the galley, but I'm thinking of doing a fixed-menu restaurant meal. It will have to be carefully thought out - but I'm sure we can do it."

Despite the restrictions, the function rooms can be quickly turned into a disco, casino or concert venue. In summer, the quarterdeck can hold 400 people. This year, Bunch is marketing the Classic Summer Party on deck with Pimm's, boaters, mini Yorkshire puddings, and guests arriving by boat.

An investment of £20,000 went on changing the offer in the Walrus Caf‚, named after the Supermarine seaplane that was catapulted off the deck and winched back aboard in the days before helicopters. This is open to tourists and, as the average stay on board is only an hour-and-a-half, Sodexho's new Promise brand, providing quality snacks, was brought in to replace the hot and cold meals. Average spend is £2.50.

HMS Belfast

Launched in March 1938, the warship served throughout the Second World War and took part in the Normandy landings on D-Day. She later supported UN forces in Korea and remained in service until 1965. In 1971, she became the first ship since Nelson's Victory to be preserved for the nation, and is the only surviving example of the big-gun armoured warships of the early 20th century.

Sodexho Prestige

HMS Belfast
020 7403 6246
www.sodexho.co.uk

HMS Belfast turnover: £1.2m
Staff: 20
Recent investment: £200,000