I recently attended the Bread & Jam Foodservice Summit, which aims to help start-up food and drink brands navigate their way through the somewhat daunting foodservice sector. Sometimes referred to as out of home or away from home, or even HORECA, it offers start-ups a huge opportunity outside of traditional grocery retail. As the leading foodservice agency, we sponsored the inaugural event last year (read more here), whilst this year I could relax and enjoy the excellent line-up of speakers and panel discussions as a delegate.
The Public Sector Catering Awards were held last week at the Hilton London Metropole and as a leading foodservice agency we were of course there to celebrate these amazing caterers. These awards are the benchmark for excellence in public sector catering, a sector which, despite its size, can often be overlooked in favour of the more glamourous profit sector. Be it catering in education, hospital catering, care home catering and even catering for the military and the prison service, public sector catering is the oft-unseen force that keeps Britain running.
As a leading food and drink marketing agency with a passion for foodservice and eating out, we make it our business to keep on top of all the latest trends in the food and drink arena. The world of food to go, or quick service restaurants as it’s sometimes referred to, is a hotbed of innovation and has proved to be one of the most resilient sectors of the eating out market, both during Covid more recently the cost-of-living crisis. So, we hot-footed it along to The Ham Yard Hotel last week to hear from some of the key players in the food to go market at MCA’s Food to Go Conference.
As a leading food and drink agency, it is fair to say we think about food 365 days a year, but this year we’ll be adding an extra day as it is a leap year. Every four years, February boasts an extra day, a curious anomaly in our calendars known as ‘leap day’. While some see it merely as an additional date on the calendar and possibly the chance for women to propose (more of this later!), others view it as an opportunity to create customs, including those surrounding food and feasting. From Greek feasts to Chinese banquets, we take a look at how leap day is marked across the world…
If you are an avid follower of our socials, you may have noticed recent posts featuring an animation of care, expertise & collaboration. These are the values which underpin jellybean as a brand and that we live by and do business by.
As a leading marketing agency, we are always on the look-out for opportunities to help the hospitality industry. This year, we are thrilled to be partnering up with The Restaurant Show for its ground-breaking initiative to raise money for Hospitality Action.
As the leading food and drink agency with 36 years’ experience in foodservice, we know a thing or two about eating out. But as they say, every day is a school day and what better kind of school day than a trip out in the sunshine to see what culinary delights Kings Cross has to offer?
It is fair to say that I had never thought about taking a trip the Channel Islands until, that was, it was suggested to me by two fabulous friends as a girls’ bank holiday get-away. As one had come all the way from Australia and all three of us love our food and drink, we were keen to make the most of our three days in Jersey and of course restaurants came top of our priority list. So here are some of our highlights, bearing in mind we only really managed to explore Gorey Point, Grouville and a tiny bit of St Helier.
If you have ever wondered how to brief your marketing agency to get the very best work out of them then here’s a cheat sheet to help focus your thinking and inspire your next great campaign. It all comes down to the why, how, what & when…
As the leading food and drink agency dedicated to doing good, we’re delighted to be working with FareShare – the charity on a mission to fight hunger and combat food waste. Led by the mantra “no good food goes to waste” FareShare is all about redistributing surplus food to a vast network of nearly 8,500 charities and community organisations that use it to feed those in need across the country.
The Cateys is known in the industry as the Oscars of the hospitality world, and I was hugely honoured to be invited this year to it’s 40th anniversary event. As a leading food and drink agency with over 36 years in foodservice and hospitality we have been proud to work with a number of Catey’s award winners and sponsors over the years. This year they really pushed the boat out to mark this momentous milestone for the awards with a special Ruby Catey awarded to Raymond Blanc who spoke on the importance of coming together to make hospitality a destination career choice.
As the leading food and drink agency we pride ourselves on staying ahead of the game when it comes to innovations and trends. Today, we delve into the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on the world of food and drink marketing. It’s the hot topic of the moment and as with any new development of this scale, there are a number of pros and cons when it comes to harnessing the potential of AI.
As a Hospitality Action Ambassador, I was delighted when the bean team was up for this year’s Summer Challenge, sponsored by CH & Co. As they say, this is not our first rodeo as we have taken part in and even sponsored previous challenges for HA. This time around, we have managed to rally 13 budding beans to run, walk, swim, and cycle their way to our goal of 500 miles. Hopefully helping to reach HA’s goal of 75,000 miles and £150,000 between 9th and 19th June. Of course, it would be when we finally get a bit of sun, but with our sunscreen applied we have all been busy clocking up the miles. Whether dog walking, getting off the train a stop early, hitting the pavement for an early morning run, or dusting off the bike for a weekend ride we have ‘bean’ doing our bit!
The fact that Hospitality Action is such a great cause has definitely motivated the team, as the £150,000 target could:
It is fair to say the foodservice industry is one in which you can pretty much guarantee you will be well-fed and industry awards are no exception. So there can’t be a tougher gig for a brigade of chefs than the Craft Guild of Chef Awards. Talk about a tough crowd! The crème de la crème of the chef world eating your food – eek! So, it’s a big ‘hats-off!’ to the team at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge as the menu they served up at this year’s Craft Guild of Chef Awards was truly fit for the best chefs in the industry (good job really).
The annual Arena Savoy Lecture is a highlight of the foodservice calendar and as the leading foodservice agency we dusted off our gladrags and headed up to town to join the great and the good of the industry.
The Public Sector Catering Awards (preciously the Cost Sector Catering Awards) celebrated it’s 30th year last night at the Hilton London Metropole. The awards are the gold standard for public sector catering, which is often the unsung hero of the foodservice world. Be it catering in education, hospital catering, care home catering and even catering for the military and the prison service, public sector catering is the oft-unseen force that keeps Britain running.
Monday night may not traditionally be ‘party night’, but this Monday was the exception, as it saw the 11th annual Contract Catering Awards held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in London’s Tower Bridge. The night attracted the great and the good of the contract catering world to celebrate the best in the business, from healthcare to CSR, education to innovation, and everything in between. The night kicked-off with bubbles and networking, and then it was onto the main event – the excellent meal and the awards themselves, as the excited nominees (including my local cobbler’s nephew – long story!) would finally find out who would be walking away victorious.
The MCA Food to Go Conference is always a must attend event and this year was no exception. As a leading food and drink agency we make it our business to stay on top of the latest trends, so we were there to hear from a stella line-up of experts from market insight to operators. The day was, as ever, jam-packed, but here are our top take-outs…
News that the Government plans to centralise regional buying and distribution agreements across food and catering supplies to appoint one single ‘super supplier’ for schools, hospitals, care homes, local authorities and developed administrations, has sent shockwaves through the foodservice industry. The plan which seems to be at best ill-advised (if advised at all) and at worse, a step towards a monopoly has been met with criticism across the board, as industry experts, suppliers and wholesalers air their concerns at the lack of consultation.
Leveraging the consumer pull of a restaurant brand to create a range of products in retail is not a new idea by any means. Indeed, since 1998 Pizza Express has had their incredibly successful FMCG range in retail. Then followed Nando’s, Itsu, Greggs, YO!, TGI Fridays, Ed’s Diner, Chiquitos and Harry Ramsden’s. There is also Carluccios’s, Zizzi, Wahaca, Wasabi, Wagamama and more! In fact, we recently worked on the launch of Cinnamon Kitchen into Tesco, a range of premium Indian fine dining ready meals developed by Vivek Singh of The Cinnamon Club group of restaurants (you can read more here).
