BaxterStorey's Ronan Harte reveals how he's handling the future of foodservice

28 October 2022 by

For the past year the chief executive of BaxterStorey has been helping the business to grow. Find out how he's handling staffing challenges and the future of foodservice

Could you give us a snapshot of the future strategy for BaxterStorey, particularly with the new management team?

The business is still in the process of recovery, but we are recovering well and week-on-week sales are very strong. I took up my role with BaxterStorey over a year ago now and we've been looking at the business from a different perspective. As you say we've made some new appointments, including Ian Thomas, who moved over as managing director for London from our sister brand BM last month. We also promoted Greg Bramwell to director of food and hot beverages, and he has a wider strategy for development. It's a way of working that is based completely around supporting our chefs.

This strategy includes working with our chef-consultants, including Adam Byatt, who is respected for cooking great British classics and his genuine interest in developing chefs, and Richard Corrigan, who is a force unto himself. Our chefs love his spirit, his personality, his honest and direct approach and his style of cooking. Ruth Hansom inspires our young female chefs, and Kirk Haworth is an expert in plant-based cookery. All these chefs want to be part of our business and are the type of people we like to work with.

How is the business managing the staffing challenges in the UK?

We have a people focus, but all businesses are in the same battle for people, whether that's competing on salary, training or development. Our academies are well-known in WSH and BaxterStorey and we have graduate, chef, barista and service academies. We continue to push on these. Just last month we announced 15 new degree apprentices and celebrated them at an event at the start of their three-year programme of on-the-job training. They'll have no university fees to pay and they'll get paid as they progress on their journey across all sectors of our business.

The battle is two-fold: how to find people in the first place is sometimes easier than the second challenge: keeping them.

Potential employees are less tolerant and less patient – you have probably only weeks to demonstrate your value to them, what you represent and what your sustainability credentials are, before they make up their mind if you are right for them.

We've learned post-Covid to ensure they know who we are and our credentials and to do that quickly before we lose them to someone else. In terms of developing people, Ian Thomas joining us is a good example of how people from other businesses can develop into a bigger role, creating opportunities for others. In this case, Angus Brydon and Antony Prentice have been promoted to joint managing directors at BM. Developing people and promoting them leaves oxygen for others. It brings fresh energy and we all thrive on energy.

Does BaxterStorey pitch against the likes of BM and other parts of the larger business?

Each of the companies are independent and each is led by an individual. Their job is to retain and strengthen their identity inside the group, but to answer your question, yes, sometimes we compete, and I like that – I'd encourage that. The younger team members at BM will be hungry to demonstrate their competitiveness too.

How do you view the current consolidation of the market? Does less competition inhibit innovation and change?

We are not lacking in innovation, but in terms of consolidation you don't buy or acquire a business unless you know what you're going to do with it. With BM, for instance, we knew what we wanted to do with it, and we are very good at managing independent businesses and reinforcing that independence. The other thing about buying a business is it that it makes all our other business more competitive – it's a bit more ‘elbows out' and it demonstrates to senior managers we are investing and growing.

In terms of new entrants to the sector, we will always have new start-ups and I'm sure we will continue to see more – we want that. It has slowed down because it's an expensive business to get into, and more often than not you're issuing credit to somebody for some time at the beginning.

There are still barriers to entry [for new operators], such as cash flow, finding staff, pre-Covid clients who are less inclined to take risks, and inflation, of course. Our scale and size help us to absorb some of these things and we get good direction of travel with suppliers for food and energy because of our buying power.

Is there still opportunity for growth in the foodservice segment?

No question about it – there is still plenty of growth. The shape of business might be different to pre-Covid in terms of the shape of the working week, which is predominantly Tuesday to Thursday now, but Mondays are coming back strongly week-on-week from what we are seeing.

How have your B&I sites changed in the agile working era?

No two locations are the same any more or the same as pre-Covid. Some sites are running at 105%-110% in terms of volume and some are still at 20%. The opportunity is in those sites at 20%. We are seeing a significant number of clients using food and beverage services as an added benefit or an enticement. But they are not just offering a restaurant, they are offering discounts and in some cases free food. It's warm in the office and there's discounted or free food, so without telling your staff to come back, they are being encouraged to do so. The more pressure there is from inflation, energy and wages, the more we will see this. Catering is a lower cost per employee benefit versus wage inflation.

Technology has changed our businesses too, we learned how to use it over the Covid years and we're using it now for pre-orders and collections. However, I do always remind myself and others that we must stay a hospitality business and not have too much tech, as hospitality is about the interaction. You can lose the personal touch.

Chef Academy
Chef Academy

What are the next big changes for foodservice?

The sector is still in such a state of flux and this won't settle properly for another couple of years. It may go back to Monday to Friday, but I don't think we fully will, so who knows. We will continue to explore technology and the different way of working, but nothing is set in stone. Our menus will be based on the current shape of the business.

In terms of staffing for the future, what's changed is the value of a staff member, particularly well-trained team members. They were always important, but now they are true gold and the destruction to a business by losing people like this is huge.

You have a chef background – do you still get involved in the kitchens?

Yes, I came into the industry via a chef apprenticeship and that does lead me to ‘lean in' quite a lot in the food end of the business. I'm well known for digging around the kitchens, fridges and storerooms. I'm comfortable behind the scenes. You get a feel on the business when you look at stock rotation and labelling – it's the attention to detail. I have a huge interest in food development and I work closely with Greg on tastes and flavours. I'd say I'm heavily involved.

In terms of food and drink trends, our Fuel brand works with market traders and restaurateurs across the country and delivers their dishes to our customers. It's an authentic experience that goes down well. It's gives our customers a chance to talk to the chef serving the dishes and to see the variety available. It also helps the traders to build a business outside of our business. For example, in London where we work with a traditional Indian trader, they will see an upsurge in their independent business at times outside of working alongside us. So, you could say one of our biggest innovations has been bringing in other people.

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