A business to be proud of . . .
BaxterStorey emerged as a result of an amalgamation at the end of November 2004 between 
BaxterSmith and Wilson Storey Halliday. The benefit of the combined business has been the collective strengths of a senior management team with over 100 years of contract catering experience between them. It offers the best of both worlds - the resources and systems of a large company and the nimbleness and flexibility of an entrepreneurial small company. Today, along with the 3500-strong nationwide workforce, BaxterStorey's senior management is passionate about delivering the ultimate catering experience to every customer.
William Baxter, the deputy Chief Executive of the company comments: "Without sounding over confident, we went into this venture with our eyes open. We expected to succeed but it has been better than we planned. Organic growth has been excellent and new clients include the Environment Agency, GSK, Nomura Bank, West LB, The Diamond Trading Co and the Red Bull Formula 1 team.
However, equally pleasing is the retention of our existing client base almost 100 per cent. We've kept the business because we haven't disturbed relationships and I believe this retention record will stand so long as we continue to be customer-focused. Our employees are excited and motivated by the company's performance and there is a tremendous team spirit, which I believe affects our service delivery in a very positive way.
William adds: "Your next question could be 'are we better caterers because we're a bigger company?' I believe we are. We have a very robust, tremendous management team, which has really gelled in the last 12 to 14 months. We've looked at, analysed and tidied up every aspect behind the scenes and reproduced policies that are more robust, relevant and workable. This means that our operational teams can now spend less time on administration and more time concentrating on food quality and service. We have continued to invest significantly in IT and people. In addition to the senior health and safety executive who has recently joined us, we now have seven development chefs under the control of Adam Nossek and Rik Razza. These chefs focus on menu content and new ideas. They're out there walking the streets, picking up new ideas and identifying emerging trends. These can then be introduced to clients' services, helping to maintain vitality and interest whilst driving sales volumes."
Still focusing on the chefs, William states that they get together to discuss the recipes and concepts they have developed through the chef's forum four times a year. He continues: "We have a big chef conference coming up in May this year. There will be guest speakers to get the chefs motivated and to endorse the focus of our business quality fresh food. We want them to understand that they play a vital part in our strategy and it's not all about making money or growing to be the biggest. Our ambition is to be the top caterer and we can't do that unless we're producing high quality food with people who aspire to be the best. So we're looking at ways to ensure our training is relevant, interesting and fun. We want to guarantee low staff turnover and high staff morale."
Continuing, William comments: "We are very proud of our people and justifiably so. For example, our finance team, headed up by Keith Wilson, has just won the Accountancy Age Award 2005 Finance Team of the Year in Business. A great achievement for the team."
BaxterStorey has recently moved to a new head office in Reading, enabling better communications and engendering real camaraderie within the company. There are also satellite offices in London, Glasgow and Manchester, ensuring the team carries out the business without having to travel across the country. William looks ahead to the future and concludes: "Currently we have a combined turnover of £130 million and we are looking at a steady manageable growth of ten to fifteen per cent growth per annum, whilst retaining all our existing clients. We will have a glass of Champagne when we hit £200 million turnover as that's a personal aspiration but we're not rushing to get there too quickly. I do believe that growth is important to the health of the business but not at the expense of the existing client base. It's all about balance and doing what is right for the company. Fundamentally, the biggest difference between us and other companies is that we are not building a business to be sold; we're building a business to be proud of."
Article from FoodChain: The Business of Food and Drink
February / March 2006