The Tastes of time

Tastes is getting a new corporate image. With Catriona Butcher firmly at the helm, the event caterer is going to be bigger, better and more profitable than ever. Gone are the days when Butcher worked from the office in jeans and a T-shirt. She's now suited and booted and determined to spend the next few months knocking the company into shape.

First on Butcher's check-list is the company brochure. She's investing £10,000 to employ a design consultant to come up with something that will not only publicise the company's services but also hold a selection of menus. Because this brochure has to last for between three and five years, she has already rejected a number of drafts. "If we're spending that much money, it has got to be right," she says.

The Tastes company logo is also being updated from the current blue square to a long, thin version to fit in with the new brochure. Both should be ready to go to print by the end of March.

The brochure is part of Butcher's two-pronged strategy for Tastes. First, she wants the company to become much more creative, with an emphasis on style and presentation. Her other goal is to hold on to the staff she has managed to recruit, keeping them motivated and getting them to buy into the strategy.

"This year, I have got to be much more focused on the future, rather than just fire-fighting," she says. "We are quite creative but it has got to be developed further and put into a clear strategy. It has got to come from me, then filter down through sales and marketing, the brochure and the presentation of the food."

For Butcher, it's all about setting up more structures within the business, from sales and marketing through customer care to credit control, and also standards that should be maintained across the board. She is looking at producing a staff manual containing all these elements.

Butcher now feels that, apart from the recruitment of a chef de partie and a telesales person, she is fully staffed with the right people. Her head chef nightmares seem to be over, although she is not mentioning any names for fear of the agreement falling through at the last minute.

"I want everyone to be able to understand what is expected from them," she says, "what the company is doing within the next five years and what possibilities there are for them."

One of the things that has helped her to focus on strategy has been her submission for the Enterprise 2000 awards organised by Lloyds Bank, TSB and Business Link. The awards recognise businesses that show enterprise and growth and have a vision for the future. Butcher had to write a 300-word piece about her vision for Tastes and how she intended to achieve it. She has heard that the company has been shortlisted and is now awaiting a call to interview.

Increased turnover

In addition to updating the company's structures, Butcher is also looking to increase turnover to £1m by the millennium. She and her team managed to increase turnover between 1996 and 1997 by 68%. If the company reaches its target turnover of £681,707 for this year, it will have achieved a further 86% growth.

Other financial goals include keeping the gross profit at 45% despite the increase in turnover, and bringing net profit up to 20% as opposed to the 15% or 16% achieved at the moment. Butcher also wants to reduce kitchen costs to 20% - with the constant staff changes of the past eight months, they have been as high as 25%.

To maintain the current growth rate, Butcher knows that she has to target new business. She is taking a stand at an exhibition at London's Olympia in May, targeting secretaries, and is also considering holding a series of open days throughout the year for existing and potential clients at some of the venues where Tastes already caters. This way, customers can see the extent of the service that the company can provide.

Butcher has also enlisted the help of a small public relations company to help organise the open days and get exposure for Tastes in the right publications. Initially, the PR firm is on a six-month trial, and Butcher is paying roughly £3,000.

One venue where Butcher might be able to hold open days, if she manages to bag the contract, is a local arts centre which will contain rehearsal studios and art exhibitions. Tastes is on a shortlist of three caterers for the project, from an initial list of 27, and she should hear at the end of this week.

Feeling confident

Although the centre's managers have envisaged a coffee-shop-style operation, Butcher has very different ideas. She feels it would be much more lucrative to run a restaurant-type operation, and is feeling confident about winning the contract. "It's a well thought-through proposal, and we've got the business management behind the catering concept, which is essential," she says.

"There is not the volume of business there to do a coffee shop," she says. "I want people to come because of the food. It's in an area of massive regeneration. People in that line of work don't have the disposable income."

Even if she doesn't win the contract, Butcher sees it as an avenue of growth she has not yet explored, and is determined to get involved in this type of operation one way or another.