Food is at the heart of everything we do in our restaurants, delis and coffee bars. It's what we're judged on and therefore it must be right. Without food, we wouldn't have a business. Food is Everything to us.
The Catermasters brand is built on to three core values. Our approach to ingredients, people and customers is really simple but gives people a clear insight into what makes us tick.
We only use quality, fresh ingredients that have been lovingly produced – often by local suppliers.
We encourage, motivate, train and develop our staff so they can be the best. We also recognise and reward their achievements.
We believe quality produce + talented, proud people = happy customers.
We know what it takes to cook fantastic food. And we also appreciate what it takes to make a great cup of coffee. Coffee is hugely popular in today’s workplace and we think our customers deserve the best.
To make sure we can deliver an authentic and delicious High Street coffee experience in the comfort of our client sites, all of our staff have undergone professional barista training – even our senior management team.
This is the kind of attention to detail and investment in skills that we think makes a huge difference and is really noticed. And, of course, a wonderful cup of coffee is always guaranteed in our sites.
We are a contract catering specialist that provides fantastic restaurants, delis and coffee bars to 120 clients across the UK.
We only use the best ingredients in our kitchens, we only employ the most talented people and we believe our customers' food experience should always be engaging and memorable. Our approach is nice and simple.
We're proud to have been serving great food to customers up and down the country since 1989. Our business was established by discerning chefs Nigel Johnson – still the joint managing director today – and Richard Moody.
The founding principles of Catermasters were to bring a new level of innovation, flair and passion to the workplace foodservice industry. Almost 25 years later, our successful approach remains the same.
The key to delivering outstanding food and service is getting to know your customers and clients. One of the ways we engage with the people that are most important to Catermasters is through charity fundraising initiatives.
We choose a charity that's close to our hearts every year and go fundraising crazy by holding lots of fun and exciting events in our sites that customers and clients can get involved with. It's a great way to get people talking.
A couple of our fundraising highlights to date include donating £84,000 to fresh drinking water projects in Africa through the sales of One Water products in our sites. We were the first caterer in the UK to embrace One Water products and we have been directly responsible for installing 12 Play Pumps in African villages that desperately need clean drinking water.
A little closer to home, we raised a whopping £35,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust in 2012. We organised charity bike rides, cake sales and other events to bring the money rolling in. It was a memorable journey for everyone involved!
We employ more than 550 skilled people across our network of client sites and we can honestly say that everyone contributes to our success in equal measure with real pride and enthusiasm.
Our senior management team draws on decades of experience and skill to drive our business forward and we love the welcoming and rewarding environment we've created for people to work in. We wouldn't have it any other way.
We thought it would be a great idea to introduce you to a couple of members of the Catermasters team that help to drive us forward both in and out of the kitchen. Meet Jules and Keith...
JULES PERTON
Jules’ represents the latest generation of talented Catermasters employees. The 27-year-old joined us five years ago as a general assistant but his talent and enthusiasm soon earned him a place on our Chef’s Academy programme.
Having learned all of the skills that are required to forge a successful career in the kitchen, Jules graduated from the Academy with flying colours in 2011 and he hasn’t looked back. He now works as a Chef de Partie at our Resources site in London and his bubbly personality makes him extremely popular with clients and customers alike.
Jules has the talent and ambition to make a lasting impression in the workplace catering industry and we’re particularly pleased to have him on our team.
Catermasters has become more of a family than a company to me.
Jules says: "Catermasters has become more of a family than a company to me. My success within the business has as much to do with myself as the teams I have worked with, and the gratitude I feel for the people who have inspired, motivated and trusted me is immense. I look forward to coming to work everyday and I’m proud to be part of such a dynamic and skilled company."
KEITH DAWE
Keith is our Senior Operations Manager and is an integral part of our business. With the fantastic support of his Assistant Operations Manager, Matt Grainger, Keith is responsible for the smooth running of 17 high-profile client sites in middle England.
Keith is a trained chef and his approach is based solely around the importance of food. His motto is simple: ‘if you get the food right, everything else will look after itself’. It’s an approach we firmly believe in as a business and one that definitely strikes the right chord with our clients.
Keith pays an impressive attention to detail and he will always do the best possible job with no hassle and upset. He is open and honest with clients and that’s why he’s such a popular figure on a personal level and such a talented Senior Operations Manager at a professional level. Keith was the proud winner of the ‘Regional Manager of the Year’ title at the 2012 Lunch Business Awards.
We have some fantastic staff in the business that will happily go the extra mile for clients and customers.
Keith says: "Delivering great foodservice is all about listening and understanding what people want. I think we do that very well at Catermasters and it’s always great to see the difference that you can make at a client site when you adopt this approach. We have some fantastic staff in the business that will happily go the extra mile for clients and customers. That’s a good quality and one that I think sets us aside from other caterers in the industry."
We're proud of our approach to workplace catering and the job we do. We definitely don't mind being thrust into the spotlight of scrutiny – in fact we quite enjoy being quizzed and assessed.
In the 2012 Times Top 100 Best Companies survey, we were awarded a two-star Best Companies accreditation and installed at number 59 in the Top 100 medium-sized companies to work for. We've also held the Investors in People (IIP) accreditation for a decade.
We are great believers in doing things properly. We don't cut corners or use packet mixes. That's not our style.
Some of the initiatives we have proudly embraced include using Free Range eggs in all of our sites, offering a wide range of Fairtrade drinks and snacks, using Freedom foods, only stocking ‘One Water' bottled water in every site and using a network of discerning local suppliers for many of our ingredients – including award-winning butcher Aubrey Allen who is based in our home town of Leamington Spa.
Contract: Oxfam
Location: UK headquarters in Oxford
Headcount: 800 staff
Period on site: 8 years
We have always found working with Catermasters from the concept stage to the day-to-day foodservice delivery as being very straight forward and we enjoy a wonderful partnership approach. Catermasters is always responsive to our needs and provide great food that is prepared and served by very welcoming staff.
Aileen Peverell, Oxfam Facilities Manager
Catermasters has been providing a first-class foodservice provision to staff at Oxfam's UK headquarters for the last eight years.
When Oxfam first went out to tender to recruit a new workplace caterer in 2005, Catermasters was the standout candidate and was awarded the contract ahead of 25 other caterers.
The long-standing partnership between Catermasters and Oxfam is built on a strong desire to deliver a cost-effective, ethical catering solution that embraces Fairtrade products and has full traceability.
Catermasters' credentials as an ethical catering partner are backed up by its perfect 100% score in a recent Sedex risk rating. Sedex Global is a not-for-profit organisation that is dedicated to driving improvements in responsible and ethical business practices in global supply chains.
Oxfam went back out to tender in 2010 when Catermasters' first contract neared its conclusion, but having surveyed the market, Oxfam saw no reason to change its catering supplier and duly awarded Catermasters a five-year contract extension.
Oxfam Facilities Manager, Aileen Peverell, says: "We have always found working with Catermasters from the concept stage to the day-to-day foodservice delivery as being very straight forward and we enjoy a wonderful partnership approach. Catermasters is always responsive to our needs and provide great food that is prepared and served by very welcoming staff."
"Catermasters has been with us for eight years now and we've retendered once within that period. We retender because we have an obligation to make sure we are using our donors' money appropriately and getting value for money. Catermasters guarantee that and we've found no reason to change supplier as a result."
Contract: Clarksons
Location: London
Headcount: 440 staff
Period on site: 4 years
Contract held: 18 years
I personally have an extensive catering background myself and I can honestly say that Catermasters are on a par with the very best suppliers when it comes to fine dining delivery.
Pamela Regan, Hospitality Manager
The catering requirement at Clarksons’ offices on the banks of the River Thames in London is two-fold and illustrates the versatility of the service that Catermasters can offer.
Our talented catering team provides a daily breakfast and lunch service for the 440 staff at the integrated shipping service provider’s offices in the capital to enjoy, and we are also on hand to provide a delicious fine dining service when the company entertains visitors in its dining rooms and boardrooms that overlook the River Thames.
Hospitality Manager, Pamela Regan, says: "We enjoy a very good rapport with Catermasters and on the few occasions when there has been issues that we’ve been keen to address, they’ve always been acted upon straight away and ironed out very quickly.
"Catermasters has a good perspective on what we require and they are always prepared to listen and take notice. We are very open with each other and that honesty has been instrumental in the contract running so smoothly for so long.
"I personally have an extensive catering background myself and I can honestly say that Catermasters are on a par with the very best suppliers when it comes to fine dining delivery."
Contract: Blackberry
Location: Slough, Berkshire
Headcount: 850 staff
Period on site: 2 years
Catermasters provide an excellent service and we really value the partnership that we have established.
Albert de Beer, BlackBerry Director of Facilities EMEA
Catermasters has been the foodservice provider at the BlackBerry EMEA headquarters since 2011.
We are almost halfway through our initial five-year contract to provide a delicious breakfast, lunchtime and all day grazing service for 850 staff across two different sites.
BlackBerry demands fresh food, a consistent high-quality service and lots of innovative ideas to ensure the foodservice offering at both of its sites is tasty and attractive for its staff.
Our catering and account management teams work hard to deliver exactly that and the renewed popularity of the BlackBerry restaurants since we took over from the incumbent service provider shows that we are getting things right.
Albert de Beer, BlackBerry Director of Facilities EMEA, says: "Catermasters provide an excellent service and we really value the partnership that we have established.
"Everything from the account management to the dishwashing works fantastically well and the service is always seamless, flexible and very adaptable. The promises that are made are always the promises that are kept and that fits perfectly with our core expectations.".
Contract: Cancer Research UK
Location: Islington, London
Headcount: 1200
Period on site: 1 year
In an ever changing environment, Catermasters have been responsive to our needs and requirements.
Deborah Palmer, Cancer Research UK Head of Facilities
We were proudly chosen as the new catering partner at Cancer Research UK’s London headquarters in March 2012.
When we arrived on site there were some challenges that we needed to overcome to bring the food offering, sales line and staffing performance up to the levels we believe are required in every successful site.
Our strategy at Cancer Research UK has been to invest in labour and then introduce a fresh and invigorating offering that is more in line with what is commonly available and attractive on the High Street in central London.
Our approach has been well received by the customers at Cancer Research UK and the restaurant traffic has increased with every passing month. Feedback points to our food and service offering great value for money and being of a consistent style that the staff on site can identify with.
Cancer Research UK Head of Facilities, Deborah Palmer, said: "We are pleased with the food offering delivered by Catermasters at our Islington office. In an ever changing environment, Catermasters have been responsive to our needs and requirements and the food is well presented, inviting and offers our staff value for money."
To cook fantastic food, you need fantastic chefs. And we believe you can never have too many skilled people in the kitchen. That's why we run our very own Chef's Academy every year to give aspiring cooks the chance to fulfill their potential and forge an exciting new career for themselves. Our students receive the very best training and advice from our team of development chefs and we're pleased to say that 17 new chefs have graduated from the Academy in the last three years. Meet this year's intake:
21/01/2013Six new chefs in the Chef's Academy
21/12/2012New charity contract
01/12/2012A positive start at YBS
20/09/2012Keith wins top award
24/08/2012A morning jam-packed with fun!
20/07/2012Sara says a big thank you
13/07/2012Best Business Award success!
07/07/2012Tony lights up Leamington with Olympic Flame
04/07/2012Daring skydive nets £2,000 for Catermasters' charities
hello@catermasters.co.uk
T: 01926 314509 F: 01926 470710
Frederick House 1 Augusta Place Leamington Spa CV32 5EL
T: 0207 628 2218
90 Long Acre Covent Garden London WC2E 9RZ
