Recent Projects

 I The National Liberal Club is one of the largest, privately owned members clubs and is situated in Westminster, overlooking the River Thames in London. Founded in 1882, the National Liberal Club was built with stunning architecture, interior decor and was at the time of construction London’s largest purpose-built clubhouse. With an ethnically and socially diverse membership since its launch in the 1880s, it was the first of London’s major ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ to admit women.

Having somewhat lost its way in terms of food and beverage and was making significant financial losses, the Consultancy was contacted by a number of the Club’s Directors and management team in order to develop the venue to enable the catering department to provide one of the best club dining and hospitality experiences in London.

The first point of action was to carry out a root and branch review of the whole complete food and beverage service operation. The Consultancy provided a detailed report which identified a number of key areas and factors that would allow the club to improve and greater maximise its foodservice operation.

Our review identified the majority of the existing catering equipment was dated and coming to the end of its useable life. As a result of this the Consultancy recommended a redesign of the current commercial kitchen and an update of all heavy equipment. Our Consultants reviewed the current kitchen and came up with a design and layout that would allow increased workflows and enable the catering team to maximise efficiency and create more high end menu items. These designs were provided initially as 2D concepts before having the layouts signed off by the client and subsequently converted into detailed 3D 4K renders of the proposed new commercial kitchen.

A full procurement process was then carried out on behalf of the Liberal Club to invite bids from a number of experienced and highly qualified kitchen houses. A suitable kitchen house was identified and appointed based on their ability to meet certain criteria. Some of these criteria included value for money, ability to meet the client specifications and knowledge of carrying out works within similar locations.

During our report it was also identified that the menus at the Club required updating in order to bring them more in line with current trends. Our consultant worked very closely with our development chef and a nutritionalist in order to come up with a number of concept menus. These included the day-to-day service at the club as well as banqueting and events menus. Our consultant and development chef then worked with the on-site catering team to implement these menus and ensure detailed training was carried out so that each team member was sufficiently knowledgeable on the new menus and its items. 

Throughout our investigation our consultant identified a number of areas that were causing significant financial losses to the Liberal club. We identified that the client was paying significantly higher than market value for a large range of their food and beverage products. The consultancy carried out a detailed benchmarking exercise which revealed that by moving all of the food and beverage purchasing to a buying group, it would allow the club to turn these losses into a financial return. 

Through implementing all of these changes, in just a few months the client was breaking even, and is now on course to make a significant profit on its foodservice operation.  

IM Group is a family-owned international group of companies operating in various different markets, including the automotive and property sectors. Founded in the Midlands in the mid 1970s, the group has grown and diversified into an international business employing around 500 people.

The Group learned that the route for HS2 – the UK’s proposed high-speed North-South rail link – needed pass directly through the site. There was no option but to relocate. The decision was made to create a new headquarters campus, one that would be even more relevant to their diverse businesses, with a strong eye on the future. 

We were appointed to carry out an initial feasibility study of the site and the spaces that had been allocated for its new foodservice areas followed by concepts and detailed design. The brief from the client was to design a modern, flexible, sustainable catering facility which will be the hub of the building and add a “wow” factor for visitors to the building.

The catering offer had to provide light breakfasts, lunches, buffets, working lunches, and small functions in the directors’ meeting rooms as required. Having reviewed the proposed spaces to work with and the clients brief and menus requirements, we the decision to propose a theatre style cooking operation that would allow for live cooking where staff and visitors could have their meals made right in front of them whilst also achieving all other requirements from the desired operation.

The consultancy provided the client with initial 2D concept designs and plans allowing for client input followed by detailed 3D renders which allowed the team to see our designs bought to life and provide a feel of how the finished article would look. The client keen to ensure that the front of house counters had the same themes and styles that were in place throughout the building. This meant working very closely with the client and suppliers in order to ensure that this vision was bought to life.

Following the process of the design and install for the foodservice areas, counters and coffee bar, the Consultancy was tasked with creating a number of concept menus for each of the catering offers which included the breakfast and lunch service, hospitality, banqueting, events and working lunches. Our Consultants worked very closely with the Client team to understand their vision and requirements for the foodservice offer. 

The client was very keen to ensure the menus included local and sustainable produce wherever possible, a number of healthy/low calorie options, whilst at the same time ensuring the service was of the highest quality, which would in turn boost staff morale and enable them to have a service to look forward to during their lunch period.

Leading on from this, the foodservice operation was then sent out to tender in order to procure a high quality contract caterer to take over and run the service on the clients behalf and deliver the menu concepts created by the Consultancy.

A number of reputable contract catering companies were identified throughout the procurement process. As part of this process the Consultancy and Client team highlighted a number of key factors for these companies to return method statements. These method statements would provide the Client an insight into each bidding companies approach to this contract and how they would look to run this service.

 Puttshack is an upscale, tech-infused mini golf experience. Puttshack has taken the traditional game of mini golf and fused it with space-age technology to create an experience never seen before with locations in both London and Essex.

The Client was looking to open a new site in Watford as an initial start to increasing its portfolio before moving on to a larger nationwide roll out and as a result began looking for obtain a consultant to work with on the initial design concepts of the kitchens across these new sites and following this, manage the procurement of an equipment distributor and project mange the install of the kitchens.

The menus were predetermined as Puttshack’s menus are repeated across each site, however our client had a very clear plan in what they wanted to achieve from the kitchen designs and how they wanted the kitchen to look in order to deliver the desired service and aesthetics and worked with us very closely to achieve this.

The Consultancy lead the client through an initial 2D concept, equipment specification and plan allowing for client input before quickly moving on to detailed design and 3D renders for which the client was very keen to see in order to fully ensure his vision of the kitchens were correctly captured and implemented.

Following the sign off of the proposed equipment and designs the next phase saw the start of lengthy procurement process which was run in order to find a suitable kitchen house to aid in the supply and install of the commercial kitchens, but to also ensure the best value for money to the client for the proposed equipment.

The consultancy is now at the final stage of the Watford project for which we are regularly attending site visits and in frequent conversation with both client and contractor prior to the install of the new Puttshack site. The Consultancy has had 3 further sites identified by the client due to commence work in 2022.

With Macintosh involved in this process, the client, including the consultancy’s professional fees, has saved in excess of £100,000 per site over its current locations having moved to using the consultancy over its previous relationship operating directly with an equipment distributor. 

 TKAT (The Kemnal Academies Trust) is one of the largest Multi-Academy Trusts in the South and East of England with 45 Primary and Secondary Academies in the TKAT Family.

The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT) schools had previously used a company called Steamplicity as their catering provider which provided microwaved meals for the school lunches. At the end of their contract with Steamplicity the TKAT schools decided to explore the possibility of searching for a caterer able to provide freshly made meals for their pupils. The schools searched for an experienced catering consultant who could guide and advise them through this process and help them find the most suitable option for their schools. 

Having been awarded the contract, our consultants made site visits to all six schools in order to meet with the Business Managers and Headteachers to talk to them all individually about what they were each looking to gain from the process. As part of the site visit key information was obtained in preparation for the pre-qualifying round and tender processes which included learning the number of pupils receiving school meals and also under which category - paid meals, Free Schools Meals (FSM) and Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) - they were qualified. An inventory of all the current equipment within the kitchens at each school was made. It was important to collect this information for the pre-qualifying round so that potential caterers could make their proposals using these figures. After this information had been collected the contract for a catering provider for the TKAT schools was advertised in preparation for the pre-qualifying round.

The pre-qualifying round is a 2-4 week period in which caterers who have expressed an interest in the contract have to complete a pre-qualifying questionnaire (PQQ). The PQQ requires caterers to answer a series of questions so that we are able to determine their technical and/or professional capability, financial and economic strengths and eligibility of each. Once the deadline for all PQQ entries was reached we then began to score the responses from each catering provider to determine which providers would be best suited to fulfil the contract for the TKAT Schools. Once the scoring had been completed the successful caterers were invited to tender and were provided with a tender pack. The tender pack provides a specification which outlines some information about the schools, what the schools are looking for from the caterers and what the caterers should provide in their tender response. The successful caterers from the pre-qualifying round were then invited to make a site visit to each of the schools in order to assess the kitchens’ facilities and equipment. This provided caterers with a better understanding of what the schools currently had and what sort investment might be required for each school. The tender was open for a further four weeks so that caterers were able to put together their proposals for the TKAT contract.

Once the tender had closed we scored the responses on a number of different points required within the tender response. Once scored, the responses and final scoring were sent to all six school for them to see. The final stage of the process was to invite all successful catering companies to a taster evening where the business managers, heads and a governor for each school were able to taste the companies’ food and were given a presentation by the companies. The schools then had a question and answer time with the caterers before deciding which company they would like to appoint as the new catering provider at their schools.

In the end the contract for the six TKAT schools in Crawley was divided. Two schools decided they would like their catering provider to be a company called The Easylunch Company and the other four schools felt the most suitable option for them was a company called Caterlink. The Easylunch Company offered a fresh delivered-in hot meal service while Caterlink proposed to update the schools’ kitchens and make the meals freshly on site.

Ambatovy is one of the most ambitious industrial undertakings in the history of Madagascar, Africa, and the Indian Ocean Region as a whole. It will soon produce 60,000 tonnes of refined nickel and 5,600 tonnes of refined cobalt every year for the next three decades. 

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Our consultant service provided independent advice and evaluated the bids from a number of leading international catering companies for the Catering, Housekeeping and Camp Services. Given the size of both the contract and the operation at the Ambatovy Project the client was keen to have an unbiased opinion of the responses from the catering company bidders.

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The evaluation was carried out using weighted criteria and broken into three main sections: Commercial evaluation, Technical evaluation, and a Compliance check. Each section was also broken down by further criteria i.e. Price, Quality & Functionality – Catering. During the evaluation process, the Consultant carried out a number of international searches and credit reports for each bidder.

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Once the evaluation had been completed, our Consultant provided the client with a detailed report of his findings, a number of graphs showing the scoring criteria for each bidder and clear recommendations. 

The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of the O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in London. The O2 Arena has the second-highest seating capacity of any indoor venue in the UK, behind the Manchester Arena.

 The O2 management company required a detailed assessment of all the catering facilities in and around the O2 arena. The assessment was to include specification and budget requirements for asset replacement.

Our Consultant assessed a large number of kiosks to create an equipment inventory and to identify any equipment needing replacement.

 After the initial assessment had been completed, a compiled report outlining the methodology for the review was created. The Consultant in charge provided figures detailing the carbon rating of each piece of equipment, equipment needing repair, and the cost of repairs in each area.

The report included a detailed list of assets identifying each piece of equipment individually with an asset number. This asset number was also attached to the equipment to make identification easy for the client.

 Manchester City Football Club is an English football club based in Manchester that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's, it became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894.

The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Premier League club Manchester City F.C., with a domestic football capacity of 55,017, making it the fifth-largest in the Premier League and tenth-largest in the United Kingdom. In addition to its main role as home to Manchester City Football Club, the Etihad Stadium also hosts occasional concerts, where audience capacity grows to 60,000, and other high profile, non-football events. 

The Consultancy was appointed in order to provide the client a detailed assessment of the catering equipment across the entirety of the grounds which included, all hospitality and public areas with in the Etihad stadium and also the first team and academy catering facilities at the training complex. 

The Consultancy assessed over 200 catering locations across the complex to create an up-to-date inventory of all the clients catering assets and a detailed report which provided the client insight into a number of key aspects of their heavy catering equipment including, condition and remaining useable life, budget and recommendations for replacement, carbon rating and conformity to current CE Regulations.

 Parkdean Resorts was formed in November 2015 following the merger of Parkdean Holidays and Park Resorts. Today, they own and operate 67 holiday parks across England, Scotland and Wales as the UK’s largest holiday park operator. Over the last 2 years with travel restrictions, Parkdean has seen a massive upturn in their business with families not traveling abroad, and with this new revenue stream want to make significant investment in to a number of their UK resorts, in order to compete with the likes of Centre Parks.

The Consultancy was initially appointed to carry out a detailed equipment audit of 34 resorts across the UK which had been identified as those that would receive the initial funding. The Aim for the client was to take stock at these sites, identify key areas for improvement and find out how these sites faired against some of their flagship resorts. With the Clients brief in hand, the consultancy attend each of the 34 sites over an 8 week period and provided the client a detailed report of each individual site, which provided the client insight into the catering equipment and its useable life and provide any recommendations for replacement, as well as one overarching report to provide one overall assessment to these UK sites.

The Consultancy’s site by site reports provided detailed asset records, further detail into the serviceable life left on each item of the catering equipment, current carbon rating, the gas and electricity safety, health & safety and also assessed if equipment was fit for purpose against CE Regulations. Following our assessments and as a result of our time spent on site, the consultancy then provided the client with an in depth recommendation in to potential new designs / re designs, recommendations into new equipment, detailed specifications and recommendations into the best avenues to procure the commercial equipment. .

 The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), is an intergovernmental military alliance between 28 European and 2 North American countries. NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party.

The Consultancy was appointed initially to carry out a detailed equipment audit of all foodservice areas throughout the NATO headquarters in Brussels. The catering operation onsite had recently been outsourced to a contract caterer who had been handed over all of the kitchen equipment and as part of their responsibilities they are tasked with maintaining and keeping the equipment to a high standard. The Client was looking for an independent company to attend site and as a result of the audit make a judgement as to whether this is being achieved and also make an assessment on the equipment and its useable life and provide any recommendations for replacement. As part of this project the consultancy also asset tagged and created a record of all assets and new asset numbers.

The consultancy prepared a detailed report for the Client which provided insight into a number of factors regarding the heavy catering equipment on site at NATO HQ. The Consultancy provided a detailed record of the clients assets and provided details of the serviceable life left on each item of the catering equipment and current carbon rating as well as providing equipment replacement advice and a forecast cost of any item that required replacement. 

We finally, based on our professional opinion and information obtained, provided information and insight as to whether we believed the equipment was being maintained and kept in a satisfactory manner by the contract caterer employed by NATO. 

Whist on site our Consultants carried out a number of inspections and checks on the equipment to assess the gas and electricity safety, health & safety and also assessed if equipment was fit for purpose against CE Regulations.

Following our time on site and inspecting the foodservice areas, the Consultancy identified a number of ways the client could look to save money / energy across the catering operation. Leading on from this submission to the Client, we were requested to produce designs and concepts for a number of the foodservice areas to replace some of the equipment and also to improve energy efficiency, workflows and productivity. Our Consultants provided the client with initial 2D concept designs and plans followed by detailed 3D renders which provided a feel of how the finished article would look post install. Our Consultants worked very closely with the client and the catering team on site to create these designs to ensure the visions were captured and delivered and provide the best outcome for the service on site.