How do we cater for multiple companies?
At Trenchers we work really hard to plan and deliver wonderful, fresh locally sourced catering to a great number of corporate clients in and around Birmingham.
The first thing we need is an order, at this moment in time the most popular form or ordering is via email, and the information we take from each order is as follows…..
Company name, address, telephone number, email address, what the company would like to order and a delivery time, if this is a new customer, these details will be inputted to our accounts software(we use Kashflow, however there are many others to choice from like SAGE, or QuickBooks).
How we go about this, takes quite a lot of explaining….
At any one time, we can caterer for up to 50 companies in a single day, to accomplish this we have to break down every order in to as small a number as possible and re configure it all into a grid planning system,
This system will consist of multiple rows and column, with each column, being a company and each row will have the items to be made and platted up.
Company a company b company c
Meat sandwich
Veg sandwich
Meat savory
Veg savory
Cake
Fruit
Crisps
Drinks
Special requirements
Using the above system we can not only break down an order, but also split the order for each caterer to have their own section and can easily work along the line and do multiple orders at once, platting and labelling each order as they are made and placed in the respective fridges.
From this planner sheet, we also take the total number of meat and veg sandwiches and the total number of meat and veg savories, and these get made separately and placed in the fridge, and get platted up when they have cooled down to below 5c in the case of the savories or in the case of the sandwiches, when all the baguettes, wraps and special requirements have been made and then we can start plating the sandwiches up to the customers specification.
The production side of things can mean a very early start for everyone at Trenchers, so once all the orders are made and in their specific fridges, we will take a break, so we can work out all the delivery runs and who will be doing what and where.
After a break we spend some time putting all the mixed up buffets in to the individual customers order boxes, and checked via the planner, and then a secondary check via the printed of email, that the company had originally sent over to us. This process takes 4 people almost 30 minutes and has to be done correctly, as this is where mistakes are made and rectified.
Once we are all happy with the lunches, they get loaded up, into our refrigerated vans with temperatures below 5c.
We generally like our delivery drivers to leave at 10am, as most customers like their lunches delivered between 11am and 12pm. We cover the whole of Birmingham, so the earlier we leave the better we deliver on time, I do love the saying “if you are early you are on time, if you are on time you are late and to be late is unacceptable.”
At the point of delivery the delivery, the driver will take the van temperature and note the time of delivery, and the customer will sign the delivery form acknowledging the delivery time and van temperature.