BRIEF
Fenwick department store Brent Cross is undergoing an £8m refurbishment and development plan, with an additional floor being added and substantial reorganisation of the trading MATs. In order to bring the catering offers up to a standard that reflects the new retail proposition, we were asked to create a new customer restaurant on Level 3 and also coordinate the relocation and repositioning of the staff canteen, providing 250 meals per day.
STRATEGY
A move away from the outdated and low quality counter service offer was proposed, so a complete review of back of house facilities and total catering personnel was undertaken to establish the strategy for change. Working with DLSM, the consultancy designed a new 100 seat restaurant and coffee bar, with a table service menu-driven offer. Substantial re-training and implementation of operating standards and systems was carried out enabling all of the existing team to be retained, supported by key new appointments in front and back of house. The new food offer and standards have been used to drive the updated canteen menu and the new space has been specifically equipped to hold and dispense a much improved proposition.
RESULTS
The new customer restaurant launched in Summer 2014 and traded substantially above previous figures. The staff canteen move was completed in February 2015 in line with the overall development.
