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FFOS LAS JOINS LINDLEY STABLE 
Ffos Las - Britain's newest horse racecourse - has awarded the contract for all catering services at the Carmarthenshire course to the Lindley Group.
Lindley demonstrated it's capability to undertake the eight-year, £5 million deal by catering for a full-capacity crowd of 10,000 racegoers when the course opened for its first meeting in June.
Ffos Las is one of the 10 courses operated by The Northern Racing Group and has become the fourth course within the Group to appoint Lindley to manage its catering business. Lindley also operates catering services at Hereford racecourse, and a year ago the company also won the catering contracts for Bath and Great Yarmouth.
Catering and hospitality facilities at the Ffos Las site include: the 150 seat Bridles Restaurant complete with 3 metre wide viewing balcony; a VIP hospitality marquee for up to 450 guests; eight interlinked executive boxes which can be opened up to cater for groups of up to 100 people; 600 acres of land which can be served by outdoor catering units; plus a range of public bars and cafés.
Commenting on the appointment of the Lindley Group to manage the wide array of catering facilities, Jon Williams, General Manager at Ffos Las, says: "The Lindley Group have a reputation for being extremely competent sports venue caterers.
"They have already demonstrated their expertise at other racecourses within the Northern Racing Group, and we have the utmost confidence in their ability to deliver high quality catering for high numbers in a high pressure environment. We have also been impressed by their ability to generate incremental business through marketing venues' conference and banqueting facilities, which is an area we are keen to develop. All of these factors make them our ideal partners for opening a new racecourse."
Paul Biffen, Lindley Group's Sales & Marketing Director, says: "Ffos Las represents a unique business development opportunity for us.
"In addition to providing catering for both national hunt and flat race meetings, we'll also be using our catering and marketing skills to establish Ffos Las as a premier destination for businesses, conference and exhibition organizers, and private parties looking for a superbly located and well-equipped venue to hold a variety of different events.
"The racecourse is in an idyllic setting, situated amidst rolling hills and countryside with picturesque views down the Gwendraeth Valley to Carmarthen Bay, yet it is only 15 minutes from the M4 and an hour's drive from Pembroke Dock and Fishguard which makes it highly accessible for a wide catchment area. And its flexible, state-of-theart indoor and outdoor facilities enable us to cater for almost any event from wedding receptions and business conferences through to full scale exhibitions."
Set on the former site of the largest open cast coal mine in Europe, Ffos Las is situated between Llanelli and Carmarthen. It is the first new turf racecourse to be built in the UK for 80 years and has brought top class racing back to West Wales for the first time since 1937.
Weston Homes Community Stadium provides a limited number of Community Events and activities on an at-cost
basis to not-for-profit groups in the Colchester community. These events number a minimum of 24 in a calendar year.
Room hire is provided free of charge and Lindley provide all catering at cost price.
In addition to Community Events Lindley provide a reduced priced event for local pensioners at Christmas time
attracting 250-300 local elderly people for a get together for a celebratory Christmas lunch.
Lindley is working in partnership with Bristol City Community Trust at BCFC on their Healthy Schools Project. This project involves teaching school children about healthy lifestyles; the importance of linking food and being active through sports. Lindley has developed a cook book for kids that focus on healthy, affordable recipes that taste great. Lindley will demonstrate recipes to the school children when they visit the stadium and they can take away the cook books to continue the cooking experience at home with their families. This type of initiative brings to life what the children have been learning in their healthy eating sessions and will hopefully give them a taste for freshly prepared and healthy food.
During summer 2012 Lindley hosted a cook and eat session with young cricketers where the Head Chef bought 6 ingredients and showed different ways with pasta, noodles and rice and spoke about food hygiene. This was met with great enthusiasm and will be continued into next year.
Lindley is involved in HM Prison Thorn Cross young offenders work experience scheme. This is where young
offenders get let out on day release to complete some work experience to increase confidence, skills and
help with future job prospects. Lindley has had people working in kitchens, front of house and The
Warrington Wolves Club are also involved.
In October, Lindley became a Business Patron of Warrington Wolves Community Foundation. Recently established
to engage local businesses with a passion for making a difference in the Warrington Community, The Warrington
Wolves Charitable Foundation aims to help young people of Warrington reach and fulfil their potential through a
wide variety of initiatives. As part of Lindley’s contribution to the Foundation we will cover the room hire
costs and provide first class catering for all of the Patron Club’s events held at the Stadium throughout the year,
including an annual celebration held to recognise Patrons’ support and provide an opportunity for young people to
showcase their talents.
The Droglites Bar that Lindley runs in the Stadium uses four trained volunteer staff each game. The equivalent cost of the wages gets donated to two of the Clubs chosen charities.
Lindley is investing in a project with Tottenham Hotspur Foundation that will teach children in local schools how to make raised vegetable beds and grow seasonal produce. The schools will also receive healthy lifestyle classes and coaching sessions from the Foundation. The school children will visit our kitchens in the stadium and be shown how to prepare great healthy, seasonal meals from their produce. The end of term will finish with a farmers style market with the schools shoeing off their produce and our chefs getting involved in some theatre cooking. Teaching children about fresh produce; what it is, where it comes from, how to grow and cook it are all valuable lessons that will help improve their welfare long term and of course we will have some fun on the way!
Lindley is working together with Kirklees College on a local education and training programme. The provides students in Kirklees College’s Catering, Travel and Tourism departments with an opportunity to gain hands-on experience working as part of the Lindley Catering team in match-day, conference, banqueting and event hospitality environments at Stadium. The scheme envisages both work experience placements and paid temporary employment. Selected students are offered personal development training programmes leading to potential offers of full-time permanent employment with Lindley. Kirklees College provide Lindley employees working at the Stadium the opportunity to study for formal qualifications and also develop apprenticeship schemes.
In early November Lindley held an event in conjunction with Huddersfield Police and Kirklees neighbourhood council. The general manager Anthony Hegney conducted a full stadium tour for Kirklees council residents based on talking about employment in the catering industry and the benefits of healthy eating. Martin the head chef did a short cookery demo in the kitchen he made a very basic pea & mint soup to show people how simple and cost effective it was to feed a family on a budget and they all got the opportunity to watch and taste at the end. The event was really well received and the Police have asked Lindley to host another one in April 2013.
As sole caterers at the community centre to be built in 2013, Lindley will be using this as a showcase of our CSR initiatives. Lindley will integrate with the other partners at the community centre, such as the GP surgery and sports coaches to provide community workshops like teaching families how to cook affordable and healthy meals. Links between the Centre, Club and Lindley will be supported through the use of charity kiosks.
Lindley work with the local Bath University to employ staff for the catering operations at the racecourse. Lindley has developed an excellent relationship with the career advisor and throughout the last 3 years over 60 students has worked for Lindley at Bath Racecourse. This creates a sustainable workforce where students come back year after year and supports the local economy.
Lindley and Notts County Football Club are proud to say that they are sponsoring the RSPCA with a summer ball hosted at Meadow Lane. The Ball's fundraising will go towards animals at RSPCA Nottingham and the Notts Branch.
Lindley have worked alongside Sheffield Young Carers, a registered charity that supports young carers between the ages of 8 and 21, who provide a substantial amount of unpaid care to someone at home with a physical illness and disabilities. By supplying branded aprons for a Young Carers Eat & Greet Event, Lindley aims to help provide young carers with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn valuable cooking skills.
By:
- Being polite and courteous
- Treating others how you would like to be treated
- Being respectful
- Listening, not hearing
- Asking, not telling
- Giving people the time to think
By:
- Delivering a polished performance
- Being an ambassador for Lindley
- Having pride in what you do
- Doing things differently
- Offering suggestions
- Being an individual
By:
- Being yourself
- Being open and honest
- Being fair
- Being genuine
- Acting with integrity
- Sharing and celebrating success
Is how we express the values that are important to the Lindley Group, it is a guide for how we should
conduct ourselves at work and distinguishes our people from the Crowd.
The Lindley Group believes that our people are precious. You are the most valued part of our business and you
will help ‘Challenge the staus quo of hospitality and retail concession catering at your venue’ through the
Hallmark of People Excellence.
By:
- Enjoying Work
- Giving a warm and friendly welcome
- Being proud of the service you deliver
- Understanding your customers’ needs
- Going the extra mile to help
- Providing a fantastic customer experience each and every time.
By:
- Encouraging new ideas
- Being passionate
- Showing flair
- Embracing change
- Being motivated and motivating others
- Welcoming feedbacks
By:
- Taking ownership
- Finding solutions
- Treating every pound as your own
- Developing yourself and others
- Exceeding your goals
- Striving to be better than our competitors