‘We're leading the way again': BM Caterers on why two heads are better than one

He and Prentice have been at the helm of BM (formerly Bartlett Mitchell) for 18 months. Their appointment came two years after the acquisition of the caterer by Westbury Street Holdings (WSH), parent company of BaxterStorey, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bartlett Mitchell was founded in 2000 by Wendy Bartlett and Ian Mitchell and set its stock in the marketplace as an independent, boutique caterer. Following its acquisition, Prentice and Brydon say the business, which continues to describe itself as "independently minded", has maintained its DNA.

Brydon says: "We were pleased it was WSH that acquired us as we'd seen that other brands had been left to autonomously run their own businesses and we've been afforded the same opportunity. We don't have aggressive targets from WSH, it's more about us maintaining our culture, sensibly growing the business and keeping the promises made to our clients of old. We are part of something that's adding value to BM and we're adding value to the wider group. We're still BM, we just have some added benefits."

When the acquisition took place the business and industry sector had been not so much rocked as capsized by the pandemic lockdowns and the mandated move to remote working. Almost four years on BM has more employees and contracts than it did in 2019. Almost four years on BM has more contracts than it did in 2019. Client retention sits at 97% and £10m of contracts have been won in the last six months, with turnover for 2024 expected to be in the region of £60m, exceeding 2019 levels.

After the hardship of the pandemic years, 2023 saw the tide turn for the B&I sector as businesses looked to their catering providers to encourage workers back to the office. The result was four quarters of double-digit growth for the sector as a whole, according to analysis from CGA by NIQ, with BM among those benefiting. Brydon says: "Like other caterers we have seen growth, particularly in 2023, with the return to work and clients making decisions about being back in the office.

"Some clients have taken the step of completely free issue. Others have looked at what they can do, and we have supported that. The biggest part of that support has been the collation of data, intelligence and real-life case studies, which has been a massive benefit. It's been a really confident period. Nerves are dispelled and not only are we back, we're leading the way again, it's exciting times."

Prentice adds: "We actually have more contracts now than we had pre-pandemic, which is perhaps surprising even for ourselves, but it shows that positivity. There's definitely a continual trickle of people coming back into the workplace and there's more each week. Hybrid working is not going away, but I don't think remote working is continuing to be a thing."

Success breeds success

Recent contract wins have included global real estate investor, developer and manager Hines, law firm Lewis Silkin and power tools business Stihl, with the geographical scope of mobilisations encompassing sites in London, Surrey, Nottingham and Manchester.

All contracts are approximately one to three years in length and will see BM provide services including meals, hospitality, coffee bars, full-service restaurants and events.

Brydon says: "We're incredibly proud. They're a great variety of contracts in different locations. We set out to energise workplaces differently for each client and that's meant we've been able to create some great opportunities and bring some brilliant people on board."

Prentice adds: "It does breed further success. The team feel the positivity of a contract win and it energises everyone."

Brydon and Prentice are looking to expand the business's presence in the Midlands and the North, creating dedicated sales hubs to pursue new opportunities, particularly around Birmingham and Manchester.

The joint managing directors were appointed in 2022 following the departure of former UK managing director Francois Gautreaux and chief executive Ian Thomas, who took up another role within WSH. It was Bartlett, who remains executive chairman of the business she founded, who suggested they lead the business in partnership.

Prentice says: "It came from Wendy. She knows us both very well and she knew what we each bring individually. It was a question of our balanced skill sets. Angus and I have a good relationship, we know each other very well and it wasn't hard to decide how we'd split responsibilities. We have huge trust in one another – we seem to intuitively know what to pick up."

Brydon predominantly oversees London contracts, while Prentice looks after those in the regions. Other responsibilities are divided and the pair co-chair monthly head of department meetings, where all members of the leadership team are given the opportunity to contribute to strategy and direction.

Both Prentice and Brydon have spent a significant period of their careers with BM (see panel) and say its success is highly personal. Brydon adds: "We treat it as if it's our business. It's personal to us, so when we're building those relationships with clients and with the teams it really means something."

Working together has bought benefits including the increased time the pair can spend on-site with teams and clients. It also aids swift decision making for both clients and colleagues. "Decisions have to be made and if decisions are made early on, the fruitfulness of that is realised early," Brydon explains. "Having two managing directors puts us in a position where we can do that – it doesn't have to be a laborious process to get an answer".

In further positioning itself for the future the caterer made a number of investments in initiatives to support existing and new clients. These include the launch of Atelier, two offsite support kitchens (one in London's Millbank and the second in the City of London which allow the caterer to support existing on-site teams and offer delivered-in catering solutions, with team members in place on-site to facilitate and serve.

Brydon says: "It's a really exciting change in the marketplace that gives additional security to existing kitchens by providing back-up if things go wrong or if they undergo a refurbishment, and it allows us to initiate contracts we couldn't before. It's not a purely delivered-in offer – we still have customer service alongside that and it's not a carbon copy for all clients."

The individuality afforded to each site and contract continues to be something BM places at the forefront of its offer. Even within the same contract different sites will have individual menus, developed in consultation with the contract leads and the client. Internally it's not just clients that have looked to improve their employee offer and BM has overhauled its benefits scheme as it looks to maintain its attractiveness in a competitive marketplace. Its position as an employer of choice is reflected in an industry leading Glassdoor score of 4.6 out of five, and a decade spent on the Best Companies to Work For UK list.

Prentice says: "We've completely revamped our employee benefit scheme since Covid. We've always had strong benefits, but we've launched a whole tranche of new benefits including enhancing maternity, paternity and grandparent leave. We've also had a campaign highlighting the benefits of working in our sector and the work-life balance we're able to offer."

There has also been a focus on employee progression and structural changes have been introduced to provide a smoother journey into management and operational positions for team members. Brydon says: "We've created new roles to allow site managers to take on more of an operational role. With client support they're being moved from a general manager role to an account manager or director role, where they will take on two, three, maybe four other contracts and that allows them to grow. Going from a site operator to a 10- or 12-site operator is a very big step and this allows for measured growth with the additional benefit that clients get real, individual focus and attention. We've had a great response.

"Out turnover of team members is very low. Part of that is that once you're here, you're part of something. You're part of our growth and that's exciting. Our head of talent started out as a butler in Canary Wharf – we've shown how that journey can happen."

The joint managing directors have also enrolled in a leadership management academy since joining WSH and Brydon has been taking part in reverse mentoring, which he says is allowing him to analyse his decision-making processes.

A diverse agenda

Prentice has been leading the company's environmental, social and governance work. BM is a member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, a Planet Mark-certified business and has achieved a gold Ecovadis accreditation.

Prentice says the business continues to develop its environmental practice and pursue targets to reduce its carbon footprint, but he feels it is the social and governance areas that are currently at the forefront.

BM has been working with diversity, inclusion and change management specialist Natasha Landers to assess the operational changes it can make as well has having equity, diversity and inclusion as a fixed agenda item at all board meetings and is putting processes in place to measure and drive change.

As the business prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025, its leadership is focused on ensuring it is well positioned for the future. In a competitive market, that has seen a number of new entrants in the past year, the managing directors say they remain confident in its offer.

Brydon adds: "Competition is great for our sector as it keeps us all on our toes. A new independent caterer will bring something slightly different because they'll want to create their own pathway. The acquisition BM has been through means we're a stable, assured piece of business and that's exciting for us. We all have one objective: to produce great food and look after our clients. We all just do it slightly differently."

Brydon has taken on an additional responsibility as "committee chair" of the company-wide party that will celebrate the achievements of BM over the past quarter of a century. He adds: "Yes, it's a catering company, but it has created a lot of opportunities for a lot of people. It's a business but it doesn't feel like it's simply a business – it feels like part of your daily life. That's a huge thing to celebrate and we thank Wendy and Ian for creating that."

Angus Brydon and Antony Prentice: the journey to BM

Angus Brydon

Brydon's hospitality career started in a hotel in Beijing, after which he moved to Cardiff to study hospitality management before joining Aramark's graduate scheme.

He then joined Restaurant Associates, part of Compass Group, where he was a food services manager in London's Canary Wharf. He moved to Bartlett Mitchell in 2009 as an area business manager, rising to the position of senior operations manager before departing in 2014 to join Elior.

He brought his learnings back to Bartlett Mitchell in 2017 when he rejoined the company as operations director. He became divisional managing director in 2019 and was appointed joint managing director in 2022.

Antony Prentice

Prentice worked in a number of hospitality venues as a teenager before undertaking a hospitality degree. From there he worked in Israel, France and Australia, moving from hotels and restaurants into contract catering.

He worked in airport contracts for Sutcliffe, which later became Eurest under Compass. In 2005 he joined Restaurant Associates, also part of Compass Group, as group performance manager, overseeing airport lounges and latterly group contracts. He joined Bartlett Mitchell in 2011 as an area business manager and went on to hold roles including operations business manager, operations director and divisional managing director, before being appointed joint managing director in 2022.