Not all Christmas sandwiches are created equal and here to separate the wheat from the chaff are Jellybean’s Group Account Director for retail trade and food and drink marketing, Neil Brenson and Foodservice PR Director, Nick Clancy with their dual verdicts. In all, eight sandwiches have been put through their paces, sourced from Eat, Pret, M&S, Boots, Sainsbury’s, Costa, Gregg’s and Waitrose.
The tickets sold out weeks ago, but on Monday Jellybean headed to the beautiful Chino Latino, Park Plaza for a ‘Michelin starred evening with Raymond Blanc OBE and his Protégés’.
The FSM Awards recognises the very best of the contract catering world across its diverse sectors, from workplace to education catering, across everything from management to chef skills, innovation to CSR. The glittering night was compered by Mark Durden-Smith who it seemed had trawled through everyone’s LinkedIn and company websites to find out some of the most embarrassing facts about them (all of which was taken in good humour – thankfully).
For over 31 years Jellybean has preached the mantra of a fully integrated approach to communications, where we deploy complementary elements from each discipline to maximum effect for our clients. And to ensure we stay ahead in a fast paced, highly competitive industry, we continue to invest in training and development of our people, all of whom have a deep-rooted passion for food and drink and an in-depth understanding of the market. I am often asked what sets Jellybean apart from other agencies and I still maintain it is our integrated approach, but above and beyond that it is our people, individuals who are encouraged to be individuals, people who really know their stuff, care deeply about what they do and whose clients love to work with. These values and the deliverables they bring to our clients business are highly valued, which is why we have some brands that have worked with us for over 25 years.
Every year MCA Insight holds its marketing in food service conference allowing food service marketing people to gather and hear from industry leading lights, as well as network and exchange learnings and ideas.
As we lurch awkwardly towards 2019, forcing it to immediately evacuate itself in fear and repulsion, we examine just some of the über trends that definitely won’t make the headlines in the coming food and drink year.
Last night we were lucky enough to be invited to Festival 30, the 30th birthday celebrations of The Russell Partnership – industry leading foodservice consultants and long-time client of Jellybean.
Every year during August Edinburgh transforms itself into one of the most exciting places on earth to be if you like live comedy. Every space that can accomodate an act, from the tiniest alleyway to the largest auditorium is taken over by comics, poets, magicians and performance artist young and old, established and unknown – all of them united by the ambition to hone their material over the next 30 days.
Anyone who has been brought up on a diet of American films and TV knows the importance of Thanksgiving in the US. Celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November this public holiday originated as a harvest festival and the event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621.
This year National Curry Week is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It was started back in 1998, by Peter Grove, to celebrate Indian cuisine as part of the UK’s diverse culture. According to research, in the UK we spend over £250 million a year on Indian food and have 9,000 curry houses and restaurants. London also contains more Indian restaurants than Mumbai and Delhi combined. Apparently we crave a curry mainly due to the fact that the spices arouse and stimulate the taste buds. So, to stimulate your taste buds this National Curry Week I would like to share one of my favourite curry recipes. It’s nice and simple and tastes divine!
Salut! My name is Morgan and I am currently doing work experience at Jellybean. As a French student and lover of the Great British Bake Off I decided to base my post on the national cuisine of Manon, who has sadly now left the tent. According to the Telegraph, French food is the fastest growing cuisine with French ready-meal sales having risen by 27% in the last year and restaurants such as Tante Marie and Côte Brasserie increasing in popularity. But I realised, ahead of Patisserie Week on Bake Off, that I do not know much about the history of French food.
Held at the prestigious Royal Garden Hotel, I had the pleasure of attending the first BITES Live conference from H2O Publishing and hearing all about the latest trends and brands shaping the food and drink offerings on our high street.
BITES stands for Brands, Insights, Trends and customer Experiences, which was perfectly covered by the array of exciting speakers discussing hot topics from experiential hospitality to how technology is shaping eating out. Here are my top takeouts from the day:
The EDUcatering Awards held by H20’s EDUcatering Magazine celebrates the oft unsung heroes of catering in the education sector. School catering has seen its critics over recent years, but in stark contrast to the headlines, it has some of the most passionate and driven people in the world of foodservice. Dedicated to ensuring our children eat well and develop good habits early on, school caterers both in-house and in the contract catering arena take their responsibility very seriously and truly deserve this glittering night. As the leading foodservice agency we were lucky enough to attend this marvellous event hosted by Jamie Robins MD of H20 and Jason O’Rouke, Headteacher of Washingborough Academy.
Glory for Independents at the Retail Oscars! The Retail Industry Awards, widely regarded as “The Oscars” of the grocery retail sector is the annual get-together of the whole industry to celebrate and reward the best of the best, from the smallest independents, to the largest supermarket groups. Having hot-footed it from the Quality Foodservice awards the Jellybean Convenience Retail Marketing team were joined at the prestigious ceremony by many of our key retail clients to toast the great and good.
As a long-time supporter of Hospitality Action, we were delighted to support them by creating the marketing material for their Festive Fundraising Dinner: An Evening with Raymond Blanc OBE. This fabulous event will see Raymond Blanc OBE, his Executive Head Chef Gary Jones and Chef Pâtissier Benoit Blin from the two Michelin-starred Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons prepare a lavish Christmas feast at Chino Latino, at The Park Plaza Riverbank in London on Monday 26th November.
Last Thursday saw this year’s search for foodservice’s most innovative food and drink products (as well those of us involved in food and drink marketing) culminate in a glittering ceremony, as the highly prestigious UK Foodservice Quality Food Awards celebrated the very best of the industry. Held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, the event welcomed hundreds of the foodservice industry’s key players and of course as the leading food and drink agency with a raft of clients up for awards the we were there in force. Along with the beans and some of our lovely clients, including The Real Soup Company, Manilife and Savse, there was everyone from nationwide wholesalers to ground-breaking independents – all keen to see whose products had been judged good enough to receive a highly coveted Quality mark.
This month we visited the National Space Centre in Leicester for the launch of the hotly awaited Association of Convenience Store’s Local Shop Report. This annual report provides a wealth of information about the performance of the sector as a whole and highlights the key trends and developments that everyone working in convenience needs to know.
Now I know I’m no Bob Geldof or Mother Teresa but when I started Jellybean in 1987 with a mighty team of 2 (me and a PA) not only did I want to brave the waters of building a successful new business, I also had a vision to make a small difference to the world at the same time. That’s why Jellybean has always supported children around the world through Plan International and during our 31 years in business we have helped literally hundreds of children in underprivileged countries around the globe. From the very first day and throughout our growth we have adopted/funded at least one child for each employee from countries as far apart as Timor Leste to Ecuador, from Thailand to Egypt and many countries in between and will continue to do so.
Jellybean is working in partnership with Plan International UK to fund the construction of five school buildings in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. The Safe School project helps refugees access safe and high quality education, reaching 39,550 children aged 3-14, many of whom will have gone through the terrifying and scarring experience of fleeing their homes in South Sudan. In Gambella they will benefit from a better education in permanent school buildings with good quality teaching and access to specialised counselling to help them overcome the challenges of being away from home.
This Arena Autumn event rang the changes, with a new venue in the shape of the imposing Banking Hall in the heart of the City of London. The line-up included a talk on the market from Simon Stenning of MCA and the headline interview hosted by Mark Lewis of Hospitality Action with Frank Gleeson, CEO and Regional President of Northern Europe Aramark and Jon Knight, CEO of Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group. With the day billed as ‘When contract catering meets the high street’ for obvious reasons, Simon took to the stage to take us through an overview of the eating out market and then onto the dynamics affecting the branded restaurant and contract catering world. Some of the key take-outs included:
