Interviews

Cost Sector Catering: What are the biggest challenges for the soft drinks sector?

Tell me about your background After leaving university I started working at Lloyds bank as a manager. After five, maybe six years, I decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do and realised I wanted to become a chef. The safest best for me would’ve been sat back in the bank earning nice money, doing less hours, but I don’t regret leaving for a second.

Tell me about the structure of your business. Jon Pryce: Take the story back a bit to when we were Crown Venue Catering (CVC), and we were traditional conference caterers. We had some contract business with fixed terms and that was the difference from the investment and commercial side of catering: risk and reward. Conferences are still an important part of the business, but we’re much more retail-led these days. Business centres want retail outlets as the minimum. How have you changed your business model as result?

Tell me about your background? I grew up in a village in Suffolk wanting to be a chartered surveyor like my father. My love of food was instilled into me from an early age – my family were often entertaining and my mum loved to cook.

After two years of planning and restoring, The Attendant opened its doors on February 18th and according to founder Pete Tomlinson, the response has been incredible. But when acquiring it Tomlinson, along with business partner Ben Russell, knew they had their hands full with the project.

Tell me about your background I began my professional life with McDonald’s Restaurants as an hourly employee and turned that into a 25-year career. I worked in diverse areas of the business including operations, human resources and labour relations, training and development, site development in the United States, Western Europe, and Latin America.