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Lindley Venue Catering - the spe
cialist sports stadia catering division within the Lindley Group – is rolling out a range of innovative, branded, food retail concepts aimed at raising the quality standard and presentation of food and improving the speed of service on sports stadia public concourses.
Following the successful installation of some of the new branded outlets at Tottenham Hotspur FC’s White Hart Lane stadium, Lindley Venue Catering is making several new branded premium food retail concepts* - Frank’s Original New York Streetdogs™, , The Pie Factory®, Pie & Mash Co, FGB - Flaming Good Burger™, Henry’s Chicken™, as well as bespoke deli concepts - available to its 30-plus professional football and rugby stadia clients. Stoke City FC’s Britannia Stadium, Ipswich Town FC’sPortman Road and Warrington Wolves RLFC’s Halliwell Jones stadia are amongst the first venues to benefit from the branded retail roll-out.
At the same time, Lindley - which has an established partnership with Starbucks Coffee Company (UK) and has introduced the ‘We Proudly Serve’ Starbucks coffee proposition into stadium environments – is expanding the provision of Starbucks making it more widely available to stadia both on the public concourse and in hospitality areas.
Adam Elliott, CEO at The Lindley Group, says: “Stadia public catering has long been Lindley’s core business and, with our substantial experience in this marketplace, we believe that we are in the best position to lead the field when it comes to enhancing the food experience of sports fans around the country. The quality and innovation that we have seen in branded retail food outlets on the high street, in mainstream visitor attractions and within other leisure venues hasn’t, until now, been evident in sports stadia.
“The aim of our new foodservice retail brands is to raise the bar in terms of quality, customer service and, ultimately, spend per head in stadia market, and the results achieved have been extremely positive and have prompted us to roll out these brands to other sites.”
The hot dog, pie and deli branded concepts were launched at Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane in the autumn and, as well as receiving very positive feedback from fans, have produced an 18% increase in total cash takings; a 28% increase in hot dog sales; and 19% increase in pie sales.
Elliott adds: “Gary Bates, The Lindley Group’s Creative Director, and our Executive Development Chef, Andy Wardle, have been instrumental in developing the new retail concepts and we have taken a holistic approach to improving the foodservice offer within our public kiosks.
“As well as introducing innovative and premium quality food products such as - hot pork torn sandwiches, homemade hot pot and homemade curries; we’ve also improved the packaging of hand held food; and our new branded kiosks have also been ergonomically designed to optimise the speed of customer transactions with the aim of enabling serving staff to complete an average transaction in 30 seconds or less.”
*Lindley Venue Catering’s branded food retail concepts include:
Frank's Original New York Streetdogs™ - offers a premium hot dog in the sports environment. Naturally smoked over kiln dried Beech wood, and made with high-quality pork and a natural casing, the hot dogs are served in a soft dough roll with American mustard or ketchup and thyme-flavoured onions.
The Pie Factory® - another trademarked retail concept selling Lindley’s new bespoke pie range which has been developed in partnership with an artisan baker. Made with no artificial flavours or preservatives, the pies have a leaner, higher-quality meat content and offer a broader range including: a Bombay Vegetable Pie; the Pea Supper Pie – lean minced British beef in an onion gravy on a bed of Lockwoods Mushy Peas; and a Chicken Balti Curry pie in a spice infused pastry.
FGB - Flaming Good Burger™outlets serve flame-grilled high quality, burgers made with prime lean cuts of 100% British beef, served in warm ciabatta rolls with a selection of delicious salads and dressings. Lindley claims the flame grilled taste really stands out against ‘standard’ burgers while the quality of the ciabatta roll really helps to emphasise that this is a premium product.
Henry’s Chicken™ offers southern-fried in either a delicious burger or wrap with crisp salad and fresh salsa, with options of an original ‘Hot & Spicy’ or ‘regular’ recipe.
The Deli which will feature the postcode of each specific venue in its title – for example, atWhite Hart Lane it is known as the N17 Deli –serves fresh high-quality deli sandwiches, baguettes, wraps and boxed pasta salads. With the roll-out of the retail concept to other stadia venues the Deli menu is being extended to include homemade soup and freshly made salt beef and smoked salmon bagels.
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.
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