Date :
05/11/2013
The latest quarterly update from Experiencing Scotland reveals that over 70 businesses have now benefited from the 1-2-1 support offered by the initiative, and explains how businesses are reaping the rewards, both in terms of improvements to their bottom line and increased customer satisfaction.
While one of the main aims of the project is to help businesses make more of Scotland’s rich natural larder, feedback from the companies supported to date suggests that the ‘holistic’ approach taken by Experiencing Scotland, which involves a diagnostic of their overall catering operation, has in many cases been equally beneficial.
Experiencing Scotland’s catering and food service consultant Sandra Reid says: “Business support encompasses a full review of the catering activity. We take a 360 degree approach and we look at all aspects of the business - menus, food sourcing and procurement, merchandising, marketing, staffing, customer service and training, and ultimately we look at financial delivery. Is the food offer delivering financially for the business?
“If it’s not, or if we think that it could be making a greater contribution to the overall performance of the business, then we work with the team on the ground to identify possible areas for improvement. The aim is to provide them with a practical action plan that they can take forward in their own time and monitor against the industry benchmarks supplied.
“This review process has already helped management teams to find practical solutions to operational challenges they have been grappling with for years. In other cases it has simply highlighted possible new product development, marketing or customer service ideas. The most useful thing, in many cases, is to have a fresh, independent pair of eyes take a look at the catering operation from a visitor or guest point of view.
At Moness Resort in Aberfeldy, Sandra was able to identify a number of areas where the catering operation was failing to meet business needs and to suggest some simple solutions to these issues, such as using kitchen ‘down time’ more profitably for food preparation and menu development, altering the traditional shift pattern to meet the needs of the business more adequately and ‘upskilling’ bar staff to deliver the bar food and snack menu.
Sandra also identified that increased skills and training for both kitchen and service teams would lead to a much-needed reduction in pressure on the head chef and restaurant manager, and was able to signpost Resort Director Terry Vose to funding available through Skills Development Scotland to help address this need.
Terry says: “The changes which Sandra suggested will undoubtedly have a very positive effect on our overall catering operation in the long term, reducing pressure on staff at key times and making the very best use of their skills and time”.
Following their recent Experiencing Scotland review, New Lanark Heritage Trust have been emboldened to think out of the box and buy a local ice-cream company and delivery bike, in order to enhance their food and drink offer and profit margins at their food operations including New Lanark Mill Hotel and the Trust’s Visitor Centre.
“This is a fantastic example of the innovation the business support from Experiencing Scotland can lead to”, says Sandra.
Find out how Experiencing Scotland’s 1-2-1 support has helped two of Scotland’s most iconic tourism businesses, Abbotsford House and Edinburgh Castle, to increase the profitability of their food and drink operations by checking out their stories on video.