The Amadeus managing director is the youngest executive board member of the NEC Group, which Amadeus is a part of. Watson started his career at Burger King, before joining Compass Group and has also held roles at Roadchef and Natural Café.
Birmingham City Council previously owned Amadeus, but for the last two years the company has been privately owned, which Watson said has been enormously beneficial to the company in terms of growth and investment.
Watson said he took Amadeus back to square one following the ‘damaging’ London Olympics. The entire senior team was removed and those who did manage to weather the storm were taken back to basics and re-educated with a focus on ‘service that sells’.
He said: “We’re in the service industry, but we shouldn’t be embarrassed by the fact we’re retailers.”
Amadeus spent £4 million on key areas including people, an epos cash system, and an e-tech stock management system. Although still a regional caterer with ambitions to go national, Amadeus is now ‘standing on its own two feet with clients outside of the NEC’.
Also on the day, industry insights company Horizons gave a presentation, titled ‘2016: a turning point’, which looked back over the year and ahead to 2017.
Guests enjoyed a three course meal that included; a twice baked Montgomery Cheddar cheese soufflé with caponata and baby spinach; roast rump of lamb with braised shoulder Boulanger and sprouting broccoli; and a Yuzu parfait served with meringue, Thai basil and lemon curd.