Catering Issues at ICT - feedback

[Scotty]

Someone asked in another thread whether we had received feedback about the catering thread. I spoke with Darren today and he has forwarded to me the points/comments from the meeting. Here they are:

Author: Area Manager, Lindley Group.

We have looked at the main issues in the forum poll and have discussed the way forward in dealing with and managing the concerns. The main concerns were as follows;

Pricing

Queues

Quality

Service

Pricing & Quality

With regards to pricing we have competitive prices within our range and endeavour to only produce quality branded products to our customers. The pricing we operate is reflected in other division 1 grounds.

We use Pars pies for our scotch steak and macaroni pies. They were runner up in the national pie awards 2009 for the scotch pie. All of our confectionary is branded e.g. Yorkie chunky, Kit kat duo. We use Coke as our main soft drink. All of our tea, hot chocolate and coffee are rain forest alliance registered.

Meal deals have now been introduced with immediate effect and will be available from all of our home kiosks from Saturday 13th March. They will consist of;

Hot Dog

100% fruit juice capri sun

Packet of sweets (maltesers/harribo)

The total cost will be ?4.00

This is a saving to the customer of 90p

We will also look to improve on the range of meal deals game by game.

Queues

We have 4 kiosks situated within the ground for home fans. They are placed at the main stand North x 2 main stand South x 1 and the far side North x 1.

The North stand has therefore access to the 3 kiosks. We will have the far side North kiosk open for all games. We would ask the fans to please utilise this facility. In the main stand all fans have access to the 3 kiosks, 2 in the North and one in the South. In the North a burger van will operate within the ground which will take the pressure away from the North Concourse and will ease of the queue conjestion.

As from the game v Morton on the 13th we will be trying to manage the queues utilising the stewards and catering management. In the future we are looking at "hawking" (people carrying trays of pies and cold drinks) that can service the queues directly.

Service

When The Lindley Group took over the catering we wanted to hire local staff. In order to do so we had to run our first 2-3 games with the help from teams of staff from our other sites. However now we have a locally sourced team of staff. They have all been inducted and trained but as with everyone we have to let them get ?match fit?. I feel they are improving every game.

In summary. It is not in anyone?s interests as caterers, club or customers not to have a quality service at the kiosks in the ground. I hope we, as your caterer can work towards getting it right.

[DornochCaley]

I would like to add....County Steak Pies cost me 1.30 or something, and are AMAZING!

[caleyrule]

i.e. dont blame us not our fault

[SMEE]

I got a nice sausage roll and a cartoon of juice at Dungwall on saturday for ?2.10

To get a Scotch Pie (soggy pastry as tho it was heated in microwave) and a a carton of Ribena at TCS last night WOULD have cost me ?3.20. ICT fans are being ripped off BIG STYLEE!

[jamie ictfc]

the meal deal spoke about.... pretty sure that is a kids meal deal?

[dan_ict]

my pie was burnt to a crisp

[Iain]

Meal deal for 4 quid? Thats not a fecking deal at all. Then again, if people are still buying from it........

[Bridge_Ender]

Realistically, prices are not going to change. It's the nature of the beast and what happens when you use contracted services, prices go up as more people need to make their margins and the knock on effect on prices is felt by the consumer. Throw in a good dollop of captive market and you have a no win situation for the customer.

As for queues etc, I thought the van being inside at the NE corner was a good move and would have helped to take the congestion out from the concourse area under the Main Stand at that end.

[Kirishima]

Well, firstly, I think it is only fair to say this is a good thing. The club asked for fans opinions/concerns, took them on board, come up with some initiatives, and basically taken up the issue. A good thing!

The prices are akin to cinema prices, steep, but not unusual in such an environment, no qualms there. Any lowering or future meal deals are a good thing, but the burger van thing is also a very good idea, and worth praise as Lindleys could have vetoed that. However, seems as if fans with kids may want a bit more understandably.

The queues thing, seems ok, but will wait and see if the hawkers thing materialises. I think its a win-win situation personally.

Anyway, appreciate Darren's efforts on this one, and hope future dialogue will make ICT one of the best places for half-time hospitality in the SPL next year!! :P

[gordyfromsneck]

Half-time at the quiet end of the stand. Loads of pies left, they had over ordered. But was there one macaroni one? Was there heck!

[bauhaus]

tbh it is poor quality at the moment, for what you are paying. You would expect better quality hot snacks for paying the extra amount, but having been to county last week they have much much better quality food for a lot less. So when it comes to value for money we aint getting it. Good to see that the caterers are buying in poorer quality grub and transporting it up here, adding to our cost, where the pies in Dingwall are locally sourced at a cheaper price from the butchers that won the best football pie compition nationally (UK) and get them sold at the ground for a more crowd frendly price. MacDougall and Hastie butchers make the champion winning pies here in Inverness, so why go to somewhere hundreds of miles away.

[Kirishima]

tbh it is poor quality at the moment, for what you are paying. You would expect better quality hot snacks for paying the extra amount, but having been to county last week they have much much better quality food for a lot less. So when it comes to value for money we aint getting it. Good to see that the caterers are buying in poorer quality grub and transporting it up here, adding to our cost, where the pies in Dingwall are locally sourced at a cheaper price from the butchers that won the best football pie compition nationally (UK) and get them sold at the ground for a more crowd frendly price. MacDougall and Hastie butchers make the champion winning pies here in Inverness, so why go to somewhere hundreds of miles away.

Good points. The problem is they macro manage. Everything is "one size fits all" and they have contracts with pie makers, etc, and so on. As we can see, it is an area manager, and he can only supply this and that, and even if he wanted something different, he couldnt, cos his ordering stock sheet is set by the company. Unfortunately, I cannot see what benefit this new contract has given the fans. I assume it is good for the club coffers, else there would be no reason behind it.

Could someone tell me who makes the Pars Pie? The runner up of the British Pie comp was Reading and Ipswich...

MacDougall and Hastie Butchers Pie, Inverness (Won Best Football Pie 2009 in British Pie Awards)...it is quite ridiculous they aren't supplied at ICT...they cost ?1.20.

Edited March 25, 2010 by Kirishima

[Johnboy]

Could someone tell me who makes the Pars Pie? The runner up of the British Pie comp was Reading and Ipswich...

See here.

[TopSix]

Bauhaus, youve been posting some great comments on the boards. I've said all along, if the club is making more money from this arrangement, then fine. I personally won't be using the catering though.

[ict123]

The unfortunate thing about this is that they do have a captive market and to an extent, as a result of this, can get away with serving up a sub standard product at an inflated price. The only way to really make them sit up and take notice is if everyone ceased to use this service until such a time as they do address these issues properly, the fact is that as long as people are handing money over the counter they could not care less how happy we are.

I like the idea of leasing out each individual catering space to the highest bidder, thus creating competition and forcing the companies involved to be competitive in their pricing and in quality. Imagine being able to walk round to the outlet in the terracing one week for a Harry Gow Pie and cream bun and the next week going to a van beside the main stand for a baked tattie or some home made soup.

Edited March 25, 2010 by ict123

[TopSix]

The unfortunate thing about this is that they do have a captive market and to an extent, as a result of this, can get away with serving up a sub standard product at an inflated price. The only way to really make them sit up and take notice is if everyone ceased to use this service until such a time as they do address these issues properly, the fact is that as long as people are handing money over the counter they could not care less how happy we are.

I like the idea of leasing out each individual catering space to the highest bidder, thus creating competition and forcing the companies involved to be competitive in their pricing and in quality. Imagine being able to walk round to the outlet in the terracing one week for a Harry Gow Pie and cream bun and the next week going to a van beside the main stand for a baked tattie or some home made soup.

I need my dinner now after reading that!

[12th Man]

I would say that things have improved in main stand north, space to walk around now, more staff and faster queues.

As for prices I don't think that they will change, if Lindleys dropped their prices by 10% that may be a 40% drop in profit for them (I just pulled 40% out of the air by the way,it depends how much they have to sell to make a profit)

Going slightly off topic, seeing as there is no speaker system around the toilet/ pie shop area is there any chance of planting a portable radio on top of the wall opposite the toilets, open all mikes ? by any chance. It would be good to hear whats happening around the grounds and it pulls people back to the pie shop area who may have lost interest of late and have decided to stay away.

[CaleyD]

Holding people in the concourse areas is counter productive to solving the problem of congestion.

[Alex MacLeod]

Do the club think the fans are stupid when they make statements about pricing being similar to other div 1 clubs. The only ones as expensive as us are the ones that use Lindley. We go to away games. We know the prices.

As for the rest. Its a step in the right direction and remains to be seen whether it works or not. The one thing I fail to understand is that when in SPL with much bigger crowds I could still go to a pie stall at the half time whistle and be back in my seat 10 mins later.

[TopSix]

This could rumble on but the bottom line appears to be that ICT are going to stick with this company.

[12th Man]

Holding people in the concourse areas is counter productive to solving the problem of congestion.

Not worth debating really, when I mentioned pulling people back to the pie shop area who have lost interest of late I should have included the words 'to make a purchase'.

[Kirishima]

The Area Manager said the pies at ICT were runner ups in the national pie awards 2009. This is true however it is a bit of a mickey mouse award compared to the British Pie Awards. Ironic thing is, this year, the same award they aren't anywhere to be seen on the awards apart from 10th for a sausage roll, while Forres have the best pie! The real awards have McDougall and Hastie as n.o. 1

British Pie Awards 2009

Winners: Clach FC (McDougall and Hastie)

Joint Runners-Up: Reading FC, Ipswich FC

Scotch Pie Club 2010

Winners: Murdoch Brothers, Forres

Runner Up: Bon Bon Cake Shop and Tom Courts

Wouldn't it be great to have two types of pie, one from McDougall and Hastie and one from Murdoch Brothers - supporting food from the Highalnds, supporting small Highland businesses. Instead we get pies from an Industrial Estate in Glasgow... verrily, that is the way of the world. Shame though.

[Johnboy]

Wouldn't it be great to have two types of pie, one from McDougall and Hastie and one from Murdoch Brothers - supporting food from the Highalnds, supporting small Highland businesses. Instead we get pies from an Industrial Estate in Glasgow... verrily, that is the way of the world. Shame though.

Spot on, Kirishma....

Unfortunately there's a school of thought in the Highlands that Anything that comes from the Central Belt, just has to better than Anything that's on offer here.

It is complete and utter bollox.... the converse is much nearer the truth.

[Kirishima]

Wouldn't it be great to have two types of pie, one from McDougall and Hastie and one from Murdoch Brothers - supporting food from the Highalnds, supporting small Highland businesses. Instead we get pies from an Industrial Estate in Glasgow... verrily, that is the way of the world. Shame though.

Spot on, Kirishma....

Unfortunately there's a school of thought in the Highlands that Anything that comes from the Central Belt, just has to better than Anything that's on offer here.

It is complete and utter bollox.... the converse is much nearer the truth.

Indeed. And that is why the "community club" tag doesn't describe ICT. How can businesses in the Highlands expect to survive when they have barriers of entry to local markets? It beggars belief. Thing is, these award-winning local pies cost, what ?1.20-ish according to their sites. There's no excuse for ignoring quality local produce unless your bottom line is cash. That's the case here. I can understand ICT want a return/profits but surely heating pies in ovens and boling hot water could be done locally and with local produce.

Edit: Remember: Pars Pies won no awards this year, and got 10th for their sausage roll in the Sausage Roll category. So take that with a pinch of salt, and maybe some Tommy sauce too...

Edited March 26, 2010 by Kirishima

[SMEE]

Do the club think the fans are stupid....

In a word....YES!