Web watch
Where on the Web would you look for the British Meat site? You might expect to find it at www.british-meat.co.uk, or perhaps www.british-meat.com, but the former turns out to be a holding site for a restaurant guide-to-be, while the latter is home to Haighs butchers of Workington.
Other variations of the organisation's name lead to pages designed to shock that are run by animal-rights activists.
Web-name speculators - so-called cybersquatters - whether they be pranksters or far-sighted investors, are busy signing up all the Net addresses that might have some value, and it can be expensive to buy back from them the URL (Web address) that you think is yours by right. It costs as little as $35 (£22) to register a .com name at www.register.com and it should be one of the first things on the list when considering an on-line presence. British Meat, by the way, has abandoned its former URL at www.britishmeat.org.uk and moved to a new address: http://www.meatmatters.com
http://hcima.org.uk/hospitableclimates/
The HCIMA's signing of an energy efficiency agreement with the Government (Caterer, 17 February, page 7) presents the UK hospitality industry with the target of cutting carbon emissions by 15% from 1999 levels by the end of 2010. If this is achieved, year-on-year savings for the industry are estimated at £31m.
To help individual operators bring down their own energy costs, the HCIMA's Damian Stafford has created this exemplary Web resource that lets businesses input details of their premises and running expenses to obtain a benchmark report and tailor-made recommendations for savings in areas such as lighting, insulation, hot water, air conditioning and heating. It's good for the environment and it's good for the bottom line.
Here's proof that it's still possible to create a site for yourself that shines alongside more expensive professional efforts. Renaissance man Chris Chown is chef-proprietor of the three-AA-rosette Plas Bodegroes, near Pwllheli, Gwynedd, and he found time to design and build this attractive, informative site illustrated with his own excellent photographs of interiors, food and nearby landscapes.
http://www.qazz.co.uk/caterchat
Catering consultancy and purchasing group Catercheck has put a couple of useful value-for-money calculators on to this Web site where, after a lengthy registration process, customers of food service caterers can make gross-profit checks on their staff restaurant or find out if they are paying their caterer too much. If so, Catercheck is standing by to lend a helping hand.
Bid for saunas, sunbeds and other commercial health and fitness equipment via this specialised Internet auction site. It isn't pretty, but there could be bargains.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 2-8 March 2000
