Blooming success

5th June 2009, 9:38am

The Charity Preview Gala Evening held last month at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show saw the Sodexo team serve champagne and canapés to the Royal Party which included the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as well as 5,000 assembled guests, including 1,200 dinners for the event's top corporate clients.

Throughout the course of the week long event Sodexo's 700 per day plus-strong team provided all of the public catering for the various outlets and restaurants located around the site.  The visiting public were offered English strawberries and beef from Cornwall, this year Sodexo saw its cash sales rise by 4%.

Following its launch last year the Loch Fyne restaurant offering saw sales increase by 19% on last year with the biggest seller being the Loch Fyne platter comprising the best shellfish of the day typically; crab or lobster, shell-on langoustines, oysters, mussels, queen scallops, Atlantic prawns, brown shrimps, crevettes, squid, cockles and clams. And the Champagne Bar sales were up by 33% year on year.

Throughout the course of the week, visitors to the show consumed treats including 18,000 sandwiches, 8,000 baguettes, 20,500 cakes and pastries, 680 Cromer crab, 716 beer battered haddock and chips, and 46,500 glasses of Pimm's.

Sue Creed, event director for Sodexo Prestige said: "We are very pleased with sales at this year's show.  The Loch Fyne concept continues to be a very popular choice.  To ensure we maintain the high standards of catering the mystery shopper programme was of vital importance and we are pleased that the average score received over the week was 83%, an increase of 4% on last year."

Related Articles:

• 03 Nov 2009 - Sodexo Prestige delighted with catering at Open Championship 2009
• 01 Jun 2009 - Sodexo takes action
• 21 May 2009 - Sodexo team tackle hunger campaign
• 08 May 2009 - New development director at Sodexo
• 07 May 2009 - Sodexo manager wins Train to Gain award
• 29 Apr 2009 - BSA selects Sodexo as its charity of choice
• 21 Apr 2009 - Sodexo chef gains top tips at Royal Garden Hotel

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