What we do
The beating heart of office life
Contract catering for a prestigious Magic Circle law firm means not only meeting the diverse needs of 1,200 employees in the London headquarters, but also ensuring highly responsive hospitality for clients and other visitors. Most importantly, the services we provide must create lively, welcoming ‘hubs’ for partners and staff, and exceptional experiences for guests.
As well as operating a large, contemporary restaurant, we run the firm’s stylish café, serving our Perkee Soppexcca Fairtrade coffee and Perkee Santo Organic coffee. We also manage tailored fine dining and special events, serving, in a typical month, more than 5,000 hospitality lunches and breakfasts to over 2,000 guests. For all these services, our award-winning chefs develop custom menus of carefully sourced dishes based on seasonal produce, always rising to a demand for innovative, inspirational food.
Part of the team
A crucial aspect of our brief is to be an extension of our client’s business, embracing their policies and goals in a one-team approach. With over 50 catering team members working in house, clear communication is essential, as is using the firm’s internal comms channels to reach customers.
This integration within the business was vital during the firm’s move to a new building in London’s Square Mile. Simultaneous running of both the old and new sites succeeded only through tried and tested project-management skills and communication protocols. We’re happy to say we maintained our ‘business as usual’ services from 7am to 11pm every day during the transition period.
Sharing responsibility
Sustainability is extremely important to our client, and we are more than happy to support the firm’s ambitions through a range of catering initiatives. These include carbon labelling, where a traffic-light system shows the total carbon involved in producing each dish from farm to fork. We’ve also introduced Meat-free Monday, with 50% off the price of vegetarian and vegan main courses, and we’ve achieved the Soil Association’s Green Kitchen certification.
Since taking over the contract, we’ve reduced food waste by 75%, with this calculation being verified by precision weighing and discussed monthly with our client’s head of environmental resposibility. Examples of how we achieve this include ‘weigh and pay’ salads, where customers buy exactly what they need, and our Wast-ed pop-ups, using good ingredients that would otherwise have been thrown away and offering recipe cards for customers to use at home. We’ve also reduced disposables: there are no disposable cups in the coffee shop, and anyone who doesn’t bring their own cup pays a surcharge (donated to charity); and we serve deli sandwiches and build-your-own yoghurt on reusable plates and bowls.
We run partnerships with charities and social enterprises, such as food-rescue charity, The Felix Project. We also work with community-based volunteer group, The Tower Project, which supports people with disabilities – we offer guidance, work placements and full-time employment for their team members within our services here.
5-star hospitality at a moment’s notice
The fast-moving nature of the firm’s business means flawless dining experiences are often needed at very short notice. We meet this challenge through flexible team structures and working closely with the reception and events-booking team. Also, our proven operating procedures help guarantee that we’ll always meet the highest standards of food and service – which we maintain while serving over 4,000 guests in a typical month.
After-hours events
To encourage socialising among colleagues, we run weekly bar nights, which employees can book for in advance or simply walk in. These are often themed events – examples include ‘Bar-ridgeton’, Pride, St Patrick’s, Halloween, Winter Wonderland and Burns Night – complete with staff outfits, decorations and entertainment, as well as food and drink.
“"The initiatives spearheaded by the catering team have been central to our staff-engagement programme. In particular, they have brilliantly transformed bar nights into the highlight of the week, completely altering the space from its usual staff dining setting into a vibrant nightclub. And, at any time of day or evening, the food offerings are always innovative and enticing".”
Results
15%
increase in sales
100%
score on KPIs
15%
reduction in subsidy
