Members’ News
March 2023
BM secures £20m of new contracts #
BM has today announced that it has secured more than £20 million of contracts in the last six months - with businesses operating in the financial, tech, media, construction and legal sectors.
The contracts include Lazard, a financial advisory and asset management firm; Moore Kingston Smith, a leading accountancy firm and Murphy, a leading global, multi-disciplined engineering and construction company.
The company has also signed major contracts with several other businesses across London and the Home Counties.
As part of these multi-year deals, BM will provide a wide range of catering services including free issue food, client hospitality, fine-dining, events catering, speciality cafes, reception and AV services (via Portico, its sister company).
Angus Brydon, managing director, BM, “We are delighted to sign these contracts and to support so many fantastic organisations as they continue to grow and expand their businesses.
“These major contracts not only represent the continuous trust organisations have in what we do, but also mark the significant changes we are seeing in the workplace.
“Organisations are really seeing the true value in services such as catering and using it as a tool to continue to engage their employees.”
Simon Booth, Head of Premises and Facilities, Moore Kingston Smith, said:
“After selecting our catering partner BM, we have been very impressed with their proactivity and project management.
“Their professionalism brought a level of security around our building move, and we know that we are working with the right partner, as our people enjoy all the experiences and benefits of our new head office.”
And Jason Cousins, Director of Facilities Management at Lazard said:
“Since BM has taken over the contract, they have significantly improved the operational support including enhanced support from BM’s culinary team. We are looking forward to developing and strengthening this relationship as we move to our new offices”.
Elior launches Lifetime of Enrichment Social Value Campaign #
Elior’s Lifetime of Enrichment campaign aims to create a lifetime of social value that impacts every stage of life– mirroring its catering business which spans hospitals, nurseries, education, B&I, stadia, healthcare and care homes. Elior has a target to deliver 28,835 days of social value in the next three years – reflecting the average number of days in a lifetime. Aligned with its established Social Value policy, the Lifetime of Enrichment programme will encompass social, environment and economic values.
Over the years, Elior has delivered a wealth of social value activity across the organisation including apprenticeships, volunteering, fundraising, and working with social enterprises. The caterer wanted to devise a method of consolidating all social value activity into one place that could be monitored, and the impacts measured.
Elior aims to educate every colleague across the business about the role they play in delivering social value. Colleagues can undertake two paid volunteering days per year in addition to getting involved in wider company social value activity such as fundraising or supporting other charity initiatives. The caterer's nominated charity is The Alzheimer’s Society and Elior has pledged to raise £100k by the end of 2024. Elior will also encourage its employees to get involved in social value activities that its clients are hosting.
To kick start the Lifetime of Enrichment campaign and lead from the front, the senior leadership team at Elior volunteered at Refettorio Felix in London. Refettorio Felix strives to tackle the dual societal issues of food poverty and food waste and offers an open-door, drop-in centre providing a welcoming atmosphere and safe haven for all vulnerable adults to enjoy a three-course lunch, which is freshly prepared from surplus food and served in Refettorio Felix’s dining hall. The team catered for 220 people over their two volunteering days this month.
Elior has been working with Refettorio Felix since 2015 in a number of ways including volunteering, both front of house and in a kitchen takeover creating a menu based on available ingredients and supplying equipment.
Charlotte Wright, Director of CSR & Wellness at Elior UK said: “The Lifetime of Enrichment campaign defines Elior UK’s coordinated approach to taking account of the economic, social, and environmental impacts of our actions and working together to make a positive difference. Importantly, it aligns everyone in pursuit of one vision.
“There are already many great things going on to support social value; the launch of The Lifetime of Enrichment campaign will mean we now have a way of recording acts of kindness whilst educating and inspiring our colleagues, clients and suppliers to get more involved.”
A dedicated portal has been launched for The Lifetime of Enrichment campaign to allow Elior to track progress in real time and maximise engagement across the business. Accessible via QR code, team members can see collective progress towards the target and the valuable impact they have made. Each quarter, an activity report, containing progress to date and ideas and activities to get involved in, will be produced and shared with all colleagues.
Matthew Brown joins CH&CO as Managing Director for Education #
Matthew Brown has joined the diverse catering and hospitality business CH&CO as Managing Director for its independent and state education business.
He leads a team of over 800 colleagues focused on the continued delivery of good nutritious food for pupils, and cost management and operational excellence for clients. He is also responsible for growth and retention through people development, an innovative food offering, understanding and delivering on client needs, and developing the proposition to unlock new opportunities.
Matthew said: “I’m thrilled to have joined CH&CO to lead its education business. I’ve spent a large part of my career in the catering industry, and in particular education catering, and it’s great to be back in an industry I love, working with such dedicated people. Everyone has made me feel incredibly welcome and I thank them for this.
“It can feel like there’s a lot of negative noise around education catering – especially state, but I see opportunity. It’s important that we put our food offering front and centre, bringing innovation and excitement across the client portfolio and developing our reputation for being a trusted partner and a great place to work. The business is full of talented people, committed to doing the best by children and clients, and it’s essential that we nurture them. I want to create an environment in which they feel supported and thrive so together we achieve our goals.”
Matthew’s career has seen him work predominantly in senior roles for blue-chip FTSE 30 businesses, including Tesco, which he joined as a graduate recruit, and Whitbread. More recently he was chief sales and marketing officer for a private equity backed facilities management business. Matthew spent a large part of his career with Compass Group, mainly in managing director roles working across workplaces and education, notably heading up the higher education and independent education businesses.
Medirest cleans up at hospital portering and cleaning awards #
Compass Group UK & Ireland’s NHS facing healthcare division, Medirest, has taken home several awards at the National MyPorter and National MyCleaning Awards, held on the 21st and 22nd February 2023 respectively.
The awards are organised in collaboration with NHS England and this year received almost 200 entries, across clinical support services – particularly portering and healthcare cleaning. The awards recognise these unsung heroes within healthcare, shining a spotlight on the great, essential work they do.
Medirest won three awards at the National MyPorter Awards:
Jack Teague – Newcomer of the Year - Royal Surrey County Hospital
Over a year ago Jack moved to become Logistics Portering Manager at Royal Surrey County Hospital. Embracing a steep learning curve, Jack took ownership of the department towards the end of the pandemic, when infection protocols were particularly stringent and since then has worked tirelessly to seamlessly embed a new portering programme, making sure KPIs have been met and exceeded along the way. His work has also seen him go above and beyond, supporting with sustainability initiatives, taking on responsibility for the switchboard and waste, as well as being instrumental in assisting the catering and domestic teams to reach Exemplar status.
Victor Adjei – Porter of the Year - Chase Farm Hospital
Victor was named Porter of the Year for fulfilling his role with enthusiasm and compassion. Having been a Porter for five years, he prides himself on his patient centric approach, which he delivers with empathy and respect, ensuring he creates a safe environment for those he helps care for. Victor’s amazing compassion shines through and has not faltered even when faced with personal adversity – when he insisted he wanted to continue his work to help others.
Ryan Lindsay – Leadership of the Year - Barnet Hospital
Ryan won this award in acknowledgement of the way he has worked his way up the ranks to become Senior Supervisor, now leading a team of around 90. His colleagues recognise he is a gifted, natural leader who supports professionally and personally. These qualities stood out during the pandemic, when he was integral in setting up infection control systems. More recently he has also worked to improve inductions, making them informative and as welcoming as possible, plus supporting the security team to fulfil their roles.
The National MyCleaning Awards acknowledged Callum Lane - Newcomer of the Year - Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
Having been with Royal Surrey County Hospital for four years, Callum was recognised for his exceptional efforts in leading a team through the pandemic, very closely followed by the task of switching to the 2021 National Standards for Cleaning. The team delivered this task flawlessly and ahead of recommended timescales, being awarded Exemplar site status for their efforts – the first hospital to achieve this acknowledgement for cleaning. He is now working with the Southern Health Trust, with the aim of achieving Exemplar site status for cleanliness there too.
Russell Blake, Managing Director - Healthcare at Compass Group UK & Ireland, commented: “Our people are at the centre of everything we do and these four individuals have truly delivered on our purpose, Performance with Heart.”
Cleaning and portering often go under the radar, but they are crucial to the smooth running of any hospital. I am very proud of our teams and especially to the four winners of these awards for working in a challenging environment, yet continuing to deliver outstanding services to the patients we care for and supporting clinical staff. A huge well done and thank you.”
Jack Teague, Logistics Portering Manager, said: “Making the move into the healthcare environment has been exciting and challenging, so being named the Newcomer of the Year is really rewarding. I have enjoyed learning about every aspect of the hospital, its patients and how we can support them and I hope to continue building these relationships further to maintain momentum in driving standards up wherever possible.”
Medirest operates across 23 NHS partner healthcare Trusts, employing several thousand employees to deliver the very best standards in service across catering, cleaning, portering and security. In October 2022, Compass’ Healthcare team also won the PENNA award for ‘Staff Engagement & Improving Staff Experience & Medical Education for Healthcare Professionals’ award in The Patient Experience Network National Awards (PENNA), for its Positive Impressions™ programme.
'Restaurants Also Serve Food’ – revised edition of Peter Backman’s book now available #
While both retailers and restaurants buy food, only retailers sell food. Restaurants – and other foodservice businesses – sell something else. In this book, Peter Backman goes into detail about the nature of this ‘something else’, why it is so fundamentally important and what it means for people who supply food, and the myriad other products, that foodservice operators buy and use every day.
He wrote this book for people who supply the retail market but struggle getting to grips with selling into foodservice. Based on over thirty years’ experience and involvement in foodservice, Peter's book provides insights and ground rules for selling into this challenging sector. Each chapter ends with a concise summary and call to action. Here’s an example:
‘I’m a successful supplier to retailers. How can I be a successful supplier to foodservice too? Watch out! Being a successful retail supplier will not help you to be a successful foodservice supplier. You have the systems and mind set honed to the needs of retail – and these are out of sync with the needs of foodservice. Solution? Separate the two’.
This latest edition has been updated and includes two new chapters on the impact of covid and how it has changed relationships between supplier and operator.
To order, and for more information, go here www.peterbackmanfs.com.
Latest MealTrak Results – 12 w/e 23 January 2023 (wave 110) #
Wholesale experts TWC Group, in partnership with food-to-go and out-of-home tracking programme MealTrak, reports the latest food-to-go market performance to 12 w/e 23 January 2022.
OCCASIONS:
Latest MealTrak results show the number of out-of-home eating occasions were +5% higher than the comparable period in 2021 on a 52 week/MAT basis.
However, in the latest 12 weeks, the number of out-of-home eating occasions fell by -12% vs. the equivalent period in 2021.
In the last 12 weeks, occasions in the ‘eating out’ channel (comprising pubs, restaurants and hotels) declined by -10% vs. the previous year. Pubs have fallen into negative territory this period (-9%), in line with restaurants (-9%) and hotels (-15%).
Total food to go occasions declined by -13% in the latest 12 weeks. This was driven by sandwich shops (-14%), coffee shops & cafes (-8%), fast food & takeaway (-23%), high street (-64%), transportation (-62%), workplace (-13%), forecourts (-9%) and independent convenience stores (-19%).
The multiples (+5%) and the discounters (+19%), with their more affordable food-to-go offer, remain the clear winners, although the growth rate in the mults has slowed this period.
VALUE:
Value sales are up +18% on a 52 week/MAT but have declined by -5% on a 12-week ending basis versus 2021.
Commenting on the results, Tom Fender, Development Director at TWC, said:
“January is typically a tough period for the eating out market, with the cost-of-living crisis adding to the woes of the sector this year. Occasions fell by -12% vs. January 2021, which is a continuation of the trend of falling occasions that we have been reporting over the last couple of months.”
“Even the multiple grocers with their competitively priced meal deals, have not been immune from the challenges. Whilst still in growth of +5%, this is quite a drop from the double-digit growth we’ve been reporting for some time. The discounters are now the only sub-channel in growth on a 12-week ending basis, and this is from a much lower base, with food-to-go representing a smaller part of the total store offer.”
“January is often a month of good intentions, both from a health and a savings perspective, so the decline in food to go could well be due to increased ‘brown bagging’, with more consumers bringing lunch in from home, or eating at home rather than going out at all. The biggest mission for food to go – and the fastest growing again this period – remains “something quick & easy to eat”, so this is a key need for operators and suppliers to tap in to.”
Mealtrak is a vast data source so if you would like to know more of the detail behind these headlines, please contact Tom Fender at TWC (Tom@twcgroup.net) for more information.
Foodservice Football #
After 6 years Foodservice Football is back on Thursday 22nd June at Bromley FC. It would have been sooner, but for the pandemic and this year we play in memory of our colleague and friend Morag Wilson who we tragically lost in 2019 to Bowel Cancer.
f any catering operators or suppliers are interested in playing, supporting or offering a raffle prize please go to www.foodservicefootball.co.uk for further details. This year the charity will be Bowel Cancer UK and please help us reach our target.
We will have a DJ after the football and there will be some great raffle prizes to be won. Please contact Dan Hillman on dan@h2opublishing.co.uk or 07833 248788 for any specific questions.
Nestlé Professional announces Brazilian ‘bean to cup’ journey for 35th anniversary Toque d’Or® winners #
Nestlé Professional today announced that registrations are open for the 35th edition of Toque d’Or competition. Back and Front of house students on Level 2, 3 and 4 are urged to complete their entry before the 31st March deadline.
Sustainability remains the theme for this prestigious competition, and competitors will get the opportunity to sharpen their skills while exploring the latest culinary trends and learning about sustainable farming. From farm to fork and bean to cup, entrants will craft pioneering, sustainably sourced menus at every stage of the competition, giving them the skills and creativity to overcome sustainability challenges in the culinary world.
This year’s winners will join 105 more in Toque d’Or’s bustling hall of fame and will enjoy a once in a lifetime culinary trip to Brazil, sampling high-end gastronomy through to street food, and learning about sustainability on a bean to cup journey with the world’s biggest coffee producer. Discovering the vibrant gastronomic scene of São Paulo, learning about coffee and sustainability in Espírito Santo, and sightseeing in Rio de Janeiro, they’ll be inspired by new tastes and flavours from the country. And visiting a flavour development lab and coffee farm, which is part of the Nescafé Plan, they’ll learn more about regenerative agriculture and coffee. As well as this year's compelling competition prize, entrants can expect the usual up-to-the-minute learning and well-respected judging panel.
Nestlé Professional Toque d’Or launched in 1989 to inspire the next generation of food service professionals and provide up-to-the-minute knowledge on the hospitality industry. Since then, it has become a UK institution, working with more than 150 colleges across the UK, and provided learning and opportunities to over 10,000 competitors. As a result, the competition now has a strong network of supporters, judges and competitor-alumni, ranging from Anton Mosimann, James Martin and Jamie Oliver, to Brian Turner, Paul Gayler, James Tanner and Simon Hulstone.
Katya Simmons, managing director Nestlé Professional UK&I said:
“Toque d’Or has gone from strength to strength over the last 35 years and it’s a delight to shine a light on the talent in the hospitality industry. It’s fantastic to see how well past winners and entrants are doing now: testimony to their dedication and innate qualities, but also to the skills and confidence they gained during the competition.”
“Times are still incredibly tough in the industry, and it’s important not just to encourage and support young talent, but also to show them the exciting opportunities on offer in our industry. Toque d’Or is our regular opportunity to do this. And this year, we’re pulling out the stops to make it as memorable and inspiring as ever – for competitors, for the industry, and for everyone involved delivering the competition.”
“This year, our commitment to young people and the industry extends beyond Toque d’Or, and to encourage more young talent to consider hospitality careers, we’ve launched our Choose Hospitality Pledge. We’re galvanising the industry to challenge negative perceptions of hospitality careers in secondary schools across the country, collaborating with industry leaders Careerscope, Springboard and Choose Hospitality alongside a growing number of leading hospitality businesses.”
This year, Toque d’Or takes place over six stages and is aimed at attracting more fresh talent than ever, with entrants competing in their colleges, before being shortlisted for the National Heats and Grand Finals. It is open to all Back and Front of House students on *Levels 2, 3 or 4[1]. Lecturers must register students that meet these criteria. To register and find out more about the competition training, format and timeline, college lecturers, employers and apprentices must go to www.nestleprofessional.co.uk/toque-dor
Sodexo focuses on collaboration at its ‘Partners with Purpose’ supplier conference #
Sodexo welcomed 45 supply partners to Headingley Stadium in Leeds for its ‘Partners with Purpose’ supplier conference.
Attended by more than 106 guests from its supply chain, Sodexo’s ‘Partners with Purpose’ supplier conference saw senior leaders from Sodexo share its progress, priorities, and future plans in areas such as supply chain development, net zero, social impact as well as insights on working with the government.
In late 2021, Sodexo announced its ambitious net zero target, which covers all three scopes. As both the supply chain and client sites are critical to achieving this, naturally this subject was top of the conference agenda.
Phil Smith, managing director of tech and services at Sodexo UK & Ireland, gave an overview of the company’s net zero roadmap, the targets within its commitment, and the progress it has already made – reducing carbon emissions by a third as announced in January 2023.
Smith concluded his presentation with the launch of a roadmap for its supply partners to support not only Sodexo’s net zero journey but also their own.
Stephen Beech, managing director of Sodexo subsidiary Entegra UK & Ireland, Francois Blanckaert, chief procurement officer; and Patrick Forbes, head of supply management at Sodexo UK & Ireland, all provided an overview of the importance of supply chain partners in achieving Sodexo and Entegra's goals for collaboration, tackling social value, and being market leaders together.
Paul Anstey, CEO for Sodexo UK & Ireland’s Government business shared how Sodexo – which has been a strategic partner to the government for over 30 years – and its suppliers, clients and communities are all working towards the same goal to ensure social value is at the heart of everything they do when delivering public services as partners with purpose.
Anstey highlighted initiatives such as The Village, developed for military bases to elevate the Lived Experience and bring together the whole force.
The day's opening speaker, Sean Haley, CEO of Sodexo UK and Ireland, who set the scene with a focus on social impact, said:
“Preserving and developing long-term partnerships with our suppliers is so important. All our suppliers have a part to play in our ambitious plans for growth while maintaining a focus on purpose, so it is vital we are open, honest and transparent about our progress, priorities and plans so we can work in true partnership to have a positive impact on the communities we all live, work and serve.
“Just like Sodexo, our supply partners need to ensure that these practices and commitments are reflected in their businesses too. We simply cannot achieve our goal of a positive social impact unless we all share the same ambition and work together to realise it.
“The conference was a great success and it was fantastic to welcome them to Headingley Stadium and get together in person at our own client venue so they could experience some brilliant hospitality by Sodexo Live!.”
The conference ended with a number of suppliers being recognised by Sodexo for their efforts in supporting the organisation and its commitments. The first three awards reflected Sodexo’s corporate values, while the final two recognised the SME and supplier of the year.
Service Spirit: Excellence in service award winner was Roydon Recycling: Roydon demonstrated excellence with initiatives to help reduce Sodexo’s environmental impact while delivering cost efficiencies. Highlights include implementing resource efficiency initiatives which delivered significant benefits each year and helped to reduce Sodexo's carbon footprint by 5% across the estate by reducing delivery frequency.
Team Spirit: Partnership with purpose award winner was Lyreco: Lyreco supported Sodexo’s net zero ambitions by investing in a zero-emission fleet and supporting Sodexo’s move to 98% FSC certified green paper, of which the organisation currently uses 154 tonnes a year. In order to combat period poverty, Lyreco has also become a distributor of "Hello Girls" products, which provide free period products.
Spirit of Progress: Positive impact award winner was Change Please: Change Please and Sodexo have collaborated on several key initiatives over the past year, including surpassing a key milestone of helping 50 people who are experiencing homelessness by offering barista training and a job opportunity; implementing Change Please and Stop Hunger collections at Sodexo sites with donations going to both foundations, and delivering a carbon neutral coffee offer.
SME of the year winner was Thomas Kneale: Thomas Kneale supported Sodexo with its recent prison mobilisation at HMP Lowdham Grange. The business has also actively participated in the Sodexo mentoring programme and has been praised for its work on sustainability by both Sodexo and Ecovardis.
Supplier of the year was Brakes: Brakes has supported Sodexo through a number of challenges, including mitigating inflation through a category partnership approach, ensuring continuity of supply based on collaborative supply chain management, driving procurement excellence, and embedding Sodexo’s responsible sourcing priorities including tackling modern slavery and achieving net zero.
Spoonfed co-founder, Willie Biggart, retires. #
The provider of corporate catering management software, Spoonfed, has seen a number of crucial changes in recent months. Hugely significant of course, was being acquired by 365 Retail Markets, market leaders in unattended retail solutions in the US.
However, this month the changes might be viewed more as ‘seismic’ than significant, as Willie Biggart, the co-founder of Spoonfed, retires.
In a remarkable story of entrepreneurship and growth, Spoonfed is now used by the top contract caterers in a number of global brands and many of the world’s top universities and colleges. The premise of Spoonfed is to provide online ordering capabilities and back of house management for caterers delivering food and events in a workplace context.
There were humble beginnings…Willie and business partner Murray McNicol began the Spoonfed journey in 2013. Owning a catering business in Glasgow they looked for a software solution to receive and manage orders - finding nothing ‘off the shelf’ they engaged with a top software engineer to develop a solution for the issues faced.
As Willie Biggart explained “Early on we realised there was huge value in what had been created - so we sold the catering business, kept the software and worked on a plan to launch Spoonfed.”
Now there are ups and downs in any journey…but a global pandemic was a pretty vertiginous drop! Willie continues, “Just what do you do with software designed for those meeting together when there are restrictions on meeting together?! Well, we took the bold decision to bring back our furloughed development team early to deliver tech solutions for the post covid world.”
Fortune favours the brave as they say. McNicol and the development team set about making sure the software was both future-proof and robust to attract attention as business came through the other side of restrictions. With staff shortages and pressure on to maintain service standards across the sector, Spoonfed became the go-to solution with many embracing its features and business use-cases as they searched for increased efficiency.
Concluding this chapter of Spoonfed’s journey, Biggart comments, “The partnership with 365 Retail Markets allows us to grow further and faster – the company is better equipped to provide technology driven solutions right across the hospitality sector.”
Biggart continues, “It was always my intention to retire at this time, and to do so when the business is taking such strong strides forwards is both satisfying and exciting for our great team. Retiring after working for myself in various businesses for 33 years will be hard – but how delighted I am to have been asked by 365 Retail Markets to continue, albeit on a limited part time basis, to contribute to both the promotion and growth of 365 Retail Markets products.
Teamwork built around trust, belief and respect for customers and each other has underpinned our success – to my family, many work colleagues, friends and clients - my sincere thanks!”
Sodexo prevents 236 tonnes of food waste in the last 12 months #
Marking WRAP’s third annual Food Waste Action Week (6 - 12 March 2023), Sodexo UK & Ireland has provided an update on its food waste reduction programme, WasteWatch. Over the past 12 months, the technology has enabled the prevention of 236 tonnes of food waste – the weight of nearly three orcas – equivalent to 434,745 meals.
This reduction was achieved by the accelerated deployment of WasteWatch at a further 132 client sites across 149 locations over the past year – a positive development following the programme being temporarily paused during the pandemic.
Overall, more than 400 locations in the UK and Ireland have implemented WasteWatch, which represents 55% of the total raw material cost and takes the organisation one step closer to its target of cutting food waste by 50% by 2025.
WasteWatch works by rapidly capturing food waste data and giving clear insights into what is being wasted and why. Teams can then bring in operational and behavioural changes to help end avoidable food waste, whether generated in the kitchen or by consumers.
In 2021, Sodexo launched its Appetite for Action campaign with the aim of using the organisation’s scale and food industry expertise to convene and work alongside political and industry stakeholders, chefs, and customers to drive meaningful change in food service procurement to help cut food waste. Last year, Sodexo was delighted to see Defra issuing a consultation on food waste reporting for large businesses.
Claire Atkins Morris, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Sodexo UK and Ireland, said:
“Tackling food waste is a key lever of our ambition to reach net zero, and our data shows that food systems are a considerable proportion of our carbon footprint.
“The only way to effectively manage food waste is by understanding how food waste is created and using the data to drive impact. We have seen how instrumental this approach is through utilising WasteWatch on our sites.
“As one of the world’s leading food service providers, we would encourage other businesses in the industry to do the same and recommend they get involved in WRAP's Guardians of Grub, which will help build momentum for making measuring and reducing food waste standard practice in the sector. Only together can we stop feeding the climate crisis."
Sodexo is one of the first organisations globally to have both its near and long-term science-based targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), as it prioritises decarbonisation to reach net zero. Its targets and key actions are outlined in its comprehensive regional roadmap and transition plan to reach net zero by 2040.
Sodexo is also the first group in its sector to link its financing to its actions to combat food waste and its strategy to protect and enhance the planet is addressed under its social impact pledge.
In January 2023, Sodexo UK and Ireland announced that its carbon emissions had been reduced by a third.
HRC set to return packed with new features and industry insights #
Hotel, Restaurant & Catering (HRC) returns to ExCeL London on 20-22 March to bring together the hospitality and foodservice sector for three days of networking, learning and new product discovery.
Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the very latest products across design & décor, foodservice, professional kitchen equipment, hospitality tech and pub & bar and meet the right suppliers to grow their business and elevate their offering.
Daniel Butcher, General Manager at La Nonna Pasta Fresca, comments: “I find these events to be a day of exploration, discovery, motivation and a developmental opportunity for any business owner or manager. I have visited HRC in the past and find it the best in the business. I am very much looking forward to networking across our industry with suppliers and other restaurateurs this year.”
This year’s event welcomes Monica Galetti as 2023 Chef Ambassador, and the acclaimed chef will be taking to the Vision Stage, designed by Harp Design, on Tuesday 21 March to discuss her career to-date and her take on some of the most important trends in hospitality and foodservice.
The show will open with an industry update from Kate Nicholls OBE, CEO of UKHospitality, discussing the association’s latest talks with government and what 2023 might hold for the hospitality sector, followed by a global view of the industry from IGD, the Institute of Grocery Distribution.
Hospitality professionals will also have the opportunity to catch sessions from Hospitality Jobs UK, as the organisation reveals the results if the UK’s largest hospitality salary survey, Cornwall Insight, the energy market intelligence consultancy, will be providing advice on how the hospitality industry can tackle soaring energy costs, and the Sustainable Restaurant Association will be discussing how to set the standards for the food of the future with CH&CO, The Pig Hotels and Hawksmoor.
In the Networking Hub, in partnership with VisitEngland and AA Media, hospitality business owners and operators can network with likeminded professionals and learn from industry leaders in sessions from the Sustainable Restaurant Association, the Foodservice Equipment Association, the Institute of Hospitality, the British Institute of Innkeeping and many more.
New for 2023
A new addition to HRC for 2023 is Chef HQ, curated by Chef Publishing, a networking area, demo kitchen and stage where leading chefs from the UK and Europe will be discussing the trends and products that they’re passionate about, while whipping up some delicious dishes for the audience.
Among the sessions taking place in Chef HQ are a demo from National Chef of the Year Ben Murphy, a presentation from Nathan Davies of SY23, fresh from wowing the judges on Great British Menu and securing his first Michelin star, and an interview with the chefs of The Future Plate, a collection of leading black chefs of African and Carribean heritage sharing their culture through tasting menus.
Chef HQ will also feature A. Wong Chef Patron Andrew Wong discussing the art of dim sum, a behind the scenes look at the Bocuse d’Or with team UK coach Tom Philips and Chair of the competition Andreas Antona, and a ‘getting to know you’ chat with Kim Rathoroen, who will discuss her journey from a stage at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay to taking up the role of Head Chef at the chain’s London Chelsea premises.
For visitors looking to revitalise their drinks selection, new show section Drinks @ HRC & IFE combines the drinks offerings of HRC and sister event IFE, International Food & Drink Event, to create a single, centralised location to source a wide range of innovative drinks products.
For those looking for discover the very latest hospitality tech products and services, The Launchpad, located within the show’s Hospitality Tech section, is a showcase for tech providers to the sector which have been trading for less than 12 months.
To find out more about everything happening at HRC 2023, and to register for your complimentary trade ticket, visit hrc.co.uk.