Last year was the best year the business has known since we started, to the point that I submitted plans for a new kitchen extension for the business and a big thank you to both my local councillor for his guidance, but also to Herefordshire Council in understanding the needs of a rural business and granting the planning permission. We very much hope to have the kitchen and office development completed by Easter, so watch this space for the future Blogs of this work.

So we move forward in 2012, looking for an even better year than the last & looking at the current bookings, we are well on the way to achieving this.

The slight variation to our catering provision this year is that we are now providing food for a couple of Primary Schools, which seems to compliment the kitchen operation superbly, but is also our chance to provide excellent balanced menus to people we need to educate about food, so its a double edged sword for us. Writing the menus is interesting to ensure nutrician issues are covered, that we follow the School Food Trust’s guidelines, that the parents are happy, that the teachers are happy, that the governors are happy but of course that after everyone has had their input,  that the children will then eat the food we cook.

So far our harshest critics are happy little people and we’re hoping this will continue for the next round of menus that are due for the summer term. Anyone who knows about food and food costs will appreciate totally that this is not about making loads of extra money for the business but there is a massive amount of satisfaction we all feel as a team when we get to a Friday and clear down having seen the last van drive off knowing that during that week we have provided over 500 meals to children who are not only enjoying the food, but even say thank you to the team that serves the food…

This is a real opportunity for us to use our skills as caterers to help educate the adults of tomorrow about food, something that has been missing from education since the demise of  Domestic Science… Watch this space for more details on this and I hope you like our school food logo that we have just started to use on the menus.

Most people in business will be aware of the ongoing requests for donations and adverts that then go towards helping a charity. We get calls all the time and I often wonder how much money will be going to the charity after all the costs have been taken out for adverts etc. so we have decided to offer support to a very needy charity, St. Michael’s Hospice that needs over 3 million a year to run the Hospice and we hope our small contribution over the first 12 months will be of help to them.

We decided to use “Just Giving” because they also deal with the “Gift” side of the donation that gives more money to the charity… I’m sure everyone has views on their own charity and why they support it, but we are supporting this one and are currently looking at ways to contribute from asking for a small donation from all our clients for every booking placed through to us contributing a % of our wedding revenue to the charity…

I’m sure when I ask Tee so sit in a tub of beans for a day, she’ll jump at the chance along with a host of other item’s we may consider in the future… We’ll keep you updatesd and hopefully add a page specifically for this in the next couple of months.

Plums are in abundance and are looking and tasting fantastic and whilst we are advocates of using fruit in season, there are a few too many so some will be frozen for over the winter, so just request them and we’ll collect as many as is possible…. The newly planted trees are also doing really well with the first crop appearing after just 2 years…

This all said, I’ll also start to get the blog and web site back up to date, so do keep following and please do like our face book page, that would be brilliant…

OK so this is clearly not a corporate spec written by an HR department, so to start with it will be very much up to the individual to write the job spec and set targets of what is reasonably achievable…

We know as the owners of the business what we want for the future, but I’m not giving too much away other than we’re based near Ross-on-Wye and the target areas are the counties surrounding Herefordshire… We basically want to build on our existing success of the business and take it to the next stage of it evolution.

Apricot Catering has been operating for slightly over 10 years, 8 of those in Herefordshire and whilst it has enjoyed great business over the years, but the time has come to increase the corporate side of the business and hence the search begins… This position will initially be either part time of even self employed and build from there but the exact logistics and development of the position is open for discussion….

So either drop us an email or call us and look forward to chatting.

From their web site  it states “Bristol Vintage is a Bristol based company working throughout the south west co-founded by Ali Cook & Katie Daniels. Between them they have over 10 years experience organising boutique events, weddings, parties and film premieres. Inspired by their passion for vintage and love of tea-cups and cupcakes, Bristol Vintage was born.

At Bristol Vintage we scour the land so we can provide you with the most unique collection of vintage and mismatched crockery in the country. We take pride in delivering you the best service at the best price.”

And to add a small sub note to this, if your do what this superb service and book in through Apricot Catering there is a discount to be had in doing that… in their own words “Making the World more glamorous Cup by Cup, is exactly what their service will do for your event and they even have a wind up Gramophone & records, just ideal for that nostalgic tea dance…

Please take a minute and visit their web site and of course mention Apricot if you speak to them… www.bristolvintage.co.uk

The team are so committed to you succeeding and show genuine enthusiasm when you discuss your ideas and their interpretation of your requirements is always stop on..

In their own words from their web site ” In today’s market you need a look that distinguishes you from the crowd. An attractive web site and corporate branding is remembered and this is the key to your success and our reputation is based on this. you could almost call this website, the portfolio page of McTip IT! We wanted to advertise the diverse rage of graphics we can produce and what better way for the design team to show off their creativity than have their own web site”

So you really do need to visit www.graphicsdale.co.uk and please mention Apricot Catering!!

All the operations Apricot Catering have been involved in have gained the highest 5 star hygiene awards, but even the basics such as buying the right equipment and understanding the ergonomics of a kitchen have been considered in the push to retaining the best standards.

This has always been under the main direction of Nigel Maud and his consultancy, Caterbrain and apart from keeping Apricot Catering on track, many a time Caterbrain has been called to resolve different issues in the catering industry with great success.

Whilst this is an in-house operation for the business, it is a trusted partner and certainly a business that you should talk to if there are issues in any part of your hospitality business, and watch for the new web site – www.caterbrain.co.uk

I think I do need to be a little fairer on the comments, as the next one made will state that it has been taken out of context, so in making the facts clear, this relates to Sir Ben’s belief that the county cannot bring conferences to Herefordshire due to the lack of quality accommodation and the only answer to this is to build a large hotel on the old cattle market site and the county will become a business destination over night.

This very much reminds me of an old film, Field of Dreams, when the constant saying was “if you build it they will come” but from my hotelier background of 25 years, I just do not see this as being the case. In order to build there has to be a demand and I don’t see the evidence of weekly refusals or even a dedicated conference team, who could give those figures.

One man and his theatre not able to accommodate one conference does not justify a new hotel that may also dilute other accommodation trade in the process.

And with regards to quality accomodation, its everywhere, Castle Hotel, Pengethley House, Chase Hotel, Wilton Court,  Glewstone Court and thats just the  South, not to mention the pletherer of 4/5 start guest accommodation we have throughout the county on top of excellent budget accommodation, ideal for business people..

Look the real question is nothing to do with quality, its bedspace and those two items are totally seperate but this is a failure of how we manage the accommodation in the county and how we sell to the companies, agents and corporate clients who would love our county.

All you have to do is look at one of the political party conferences and it will give a clue on how to start to look at this problem. In Harrogate there is not a hotel for 2000 guests but there are hotels that can accommodation 2000 people.

The solution is therefore to work out the bed space in the county, offer largest accommodation who are also good operators with quality product and get a conference to come to the county. If we can attract a few conferences and manage the rooms properly and we star to break into the conference market, it can become more justifiable for a new build but simply to build and hold your breath is a recipe for disaster…

Lets try to stop knee jerk reactions and look sensibly at what we can achieve with the current superb assets we do have and for goodness sake- be more positive about our county as its a fantastic asset…

Recently relocated from Tewkesbury to Corse Lawn, finding their offices is easy… Please do ask them for what you are looking for and of course mention Apricot Catering…