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@Official_STFC sign thirteen million pounds deal with The Lindley Group to provide catering at the County Ground for the next 10 years

So how does this work?

They pay us 13M? 1.3M/year.

Sounds a bit too good to be true so I've probably misunderstood, but then I know fuck-all about catering!

Its thirteen million pounds of burgers....

http://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/article/lindleycateringdeal-860259.aspx

That guy looks like he likes catering.

How long until Chang comes on and announces his sources have told him we have signed a new player called Lindley - squad No. 10

That works out at over 100k/month.

Are they planning on selling caviar, truffles and champagne or something?

That Lindley chap doesn't look very fit. Hope Kmac sticks him on a diet before the season starts.

It doesn't explain which way the 13mill is going either. Are we paying them to supply/run that side of the business? Them paying us for the 'rent' of the ground's facilities? I don't understand how football catering business works, I apologise.

Also, 15,728? When was that our capacity? I thought it was rated at about 14,400?

Is this the end of the burger van. Oh god noooooooo. Noooooooo.

You've not bought chips at the County Ground recently have you? Mind you, come to that, neither have I. Although I have tried, repeatedly.

Sod the financials, what I want to know is if this deal means I have any chance of being able to buy chips at half-time without missing the end of the first half or the start of the second half. And as it's the same lot that have been consistently running out of chips in the first 5 mins of half time for the past few years (but not telling anyone until you finally get to the front of the queue), I doubt it.

Another nail in Jed's coffin - the chipgate scandal.  :D

To be fair, IIRC it was Nick Watkins who brought this lot in, Jed and Co have just renewed the contract. Just annoys me that in this instance, I actively want to be ripped off and go out of my way to do so and they still can't manage it (the caterers, not Jed, NW, the club or anyone else)

As someone who never buys stuff at half time (I bring in sweets or a sandwich or something because fuck waiting in the queue, or eat in the Legends Lounge beforehand), how often do they actually run out of stuff?

Chips - every time I tried last season. And the season before that.

And before anyone starts, it's for the kids, not me. And yes I do feed them before we go, but they like having chips at half time as a treat. So bog off.

Someone's got a chip on their shoulder.

Or should that be no chip?

Ha ha badum tish! :D

when did Neil Ruddock move into catering? looks like he's been on a diet.

I never used to bother to get anything at half time in the DRS, it was bad enough having to queue to get out of the stand at the end of a match, let alone doing it at half time.  ::)

This isn't the food available on the concourse is it? I thought it was just the hospitality food?

Have to say i've been in there a few times over the last couple of years and think the food leaves a lot to be desired. I think they could do so much better but its normally always full in there so guess the people paying are happy with it

Up until now they've been doing "public matchday catering" (i.e. I assume the concourse food) but will now be doing all matchday food. So I think they have just been doing the concourse food and now they're going to be doing the hospitality food as well. And:

"provide all conference, banqueting, hospitality and retail services on matchdays and at events, as well as managing sales and marketing for non matchday events through to the 2022-23 season"
So the whole shooting match, pretty much.

Could they knock some windows through from the mysterious second concourse in the DRS and turn it into a nice 5-star restaurant with a view of the (?)poplars and the magic roundabout beyond? The business community of SN1 would be fighting for a seat 5 days a week, day and night. We might even have to reduce the noise on match nights so we don't disturb them.

Ten years does sound like a very long period over which to be awarding a contract.  Aside from anything else, does anyone really know what the club is going to look like in 2023, or even where we are going to be playing?  How many people will be attending games then?  Anything from 4,000 to 20,000 would be my guess.

That's a raskal waistcoat.  Doug Mountjoy-esque.

Perhaps this could be why the figures appear unrealistic? It could be that the catering company is speculating on greater attendances and use of facilities in the future? (plus inflation)

13 mill sounds great -- but will 1.3 mill a year seem good business in 2020?

This is a crucial issue that we need to know.

Couldnt give a shit what gets served inside the ground, those vans are decent.

Probably not. Seems to be a classic case of mortgaging future revenue streams for cash up front which may look like very poor value if we do get to redevelop the CG. But as we may not, can see the sense in going for the cashflow now. At least it's just the catering, not the season tickets, like Ridsdale did at Cardiff and pretty much everyone seems to have done at Portsmouth

afawk

True dat. Although I was referring specifically to this deal, but then this deal is larger than just the catering, it's also all the sales and marketing for non-matchday events for the next 10 years too. Does this mean they charge back a fee for that? Or do they get all the profits from any/all non-matchday events too? If it's the latter, we've just sold off a huge chunk of our non-football revenue streams for the next decade. Which may well be a shrewd bit of business or could severely hamper the scope for a future board to profit from a redevelopment. May well be a lot of devil in them details

From memory I think I have bought 1 hot drink in all the matches I've been to the county ground, and that was a midweek match against Port Vale and it was purely to heat my hands up!

The number of people who nip off to get their food 5 minutes before or back 5 minutes after half time that people have to let back into their seats which has a ripple effect of not being able to see the game for a while until they can squeeze past gets on my mammories.

Sounds like good business to me.

Certainly does.

Although as Ardiles mentioned, 10 years does seem a long time and things could change dramatically in this period of time so lets hope throwing all our eggs into one big basket doesn't hinder us in the long term somehow.

I'm beginning to understand a bit better how not very rich people* like Jed & co run their businesses. They have no significant capital assets*, so they pay for the present with the future. Having to offer long-term contracts to fund the short-term is adding risk and reducing room for manoeuvre in future. Not knocking the income for the deal as such - £1.3m income per year for catering rental sounds very respectable - but as others have pointed out, what will it look like in 2023?

*allegedly

According to what Samdy's posted it's not £1.3m to the club (it's "worth" that to Lindey, not the club). For the club, it's £200k income plus £200k "saved", so it doesn't look like £1.3m in 2013, never mind 2023

Can't argue with a net £400k improvement to the club's balance sheet really.

£8k a week less of wages that need to be slashed.

Or it could fund the Rooney transfer :)

That sounds more realistic.

Anybody know what our profits on catering are now?

I assume they're the 200k loss of the 400k.

Well, we appear to be doing things very much like other clubs. (not that that makes it a good thing necessarily)

Lindley have just signed a 10 year £18m deal with Watford, they have an existing long standing relationship with Liverpool, and at least 7 other clubs including Spurs and Bristol City.

Much as I hate to praise the board, it does smack of professionalising how we manage catering, with an award winning company.

Yes sorry, he posted while I was writing mine. I wonder if the £200k "saved" is actually the total cost of the current in-house hospitality, rather than the net shortfall after earnings (remembering Jed's "£1.8m profit" on concerts)? That does seem a remarkably large loss to be making on a relatively small operation. If that's what's meant, the net gain won't be £400k p.a.


That does provide some reassurance.

A contract of that length will (on the basis our friends in the boardroom did this properly) be flexible enough to take account of changing circumstamces - customer volumes, food prices, staff costs, food health and safety legislation changes etc. There will be standards they have to meet, and failure to meet them could lead to us terminating. There should also be a right for the club to terminate for any reason, because we feel like it, but them pay them an element of compensation for doing so. They seem to be a market leader, so a long term extension makes sense in principle if it means reduced costs. The potential savings equate to the left arm of a soon to be signed Town and future Forest Green player, so whilst it makes sense, it's nothing to get excited, or angry about. Next...

Whilst I no longer use any catering facilities at the CG (far prefer the chppie opposite the CG) it matters not to me who supplies the burgers and chips, but if it means more money in the coffers at the end of the day I am all for it.  I definitely agree with Bob's Orange about all those people who disturb everybody else as they come back late - we have one family in our row in the DRS who are up and down to the toilet all the time after arriving about two minutes after the start, leave their seats about two minutes before half-time and then drift back in dribs and drabs after the second half has kicked off!! :doh:

I guess the primary benefit of a long deal is to encourage investment, perhaps a new deep fat fryer so that enough chips can be cooked to meet demand, and a new freezer in which there is sufficient space to store said chips. 

Can a story about County Ground catering reach four pages?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtM0-ZFwiNo

You mean the chips don't come from fresh spuds that are picked, peeled and chipped on the day?!!! Boo.

This may have been asked before in this thread, but its late and I don't have the energy to check.  Is one of the stipulations of the deal that the food is edible?  I mean, suitable for humans?  Imagine that...

And can it be possible to get black coffee and tea for once?

Yes  :chef:

Worse than people getting back to their seats late after half time are the ones that leave their seats early at the end of the match and then proceed to stand in the walkway until the final whistle, right in my view of the goal. Grrrr

I don't understand why you would buy food/drink inside the CG. It's overpriced and it's not very nice.

The CG does hold the honour of having the worst coffee I've ever drunk. The stuff they stick under the hot water in the machine. Foul.

My wife once asked for a black coffee and they didn't understand what she was asking for. Her clarification of "coffee without milk" didn't help either and she just got given two coffees in response to that.

I understand why they use the powdered, pre-packaged cups of bovril/tea/coffee/soup, but fuck it tastes nasty. And you'd think there'd be an option for 'black', just through common sense.

The powdered tea/coffee in army ratpacks is better than the stuff at the CG.

The tea is even worse than the dreadful coffee.

I don't mind the Bovril, once its stirred. There, I said it.

But other than chipgate, the thing the grinds my gears next is a lack of forks to eat a pie with. Actually the chicken balti isn't too bad either.

The Bovril is fine after a stir/swish... don't get me started on Oxo-gate though

mmmmmmmm Bovril

Weirdly, although I love the stuff, I don't think I've ever actually had Bovril at the CG. I almost always have it when I go to an away match, but never at the CG...

They need to bring back the chicken and vegetable soup from the early to mid 2000s, if not then I have no interest in the catering other than when it's fucking freezing I might get a bovril.

Use to like the rock hard drifters and toffee popcorn they sold in 1986.

Is it Aldershot which sell Candy Floss? Weird.

Shame we didn't think of that when Fatty Evans came with Corby (or was it Croydon?) after his "di Canio Circus" comments.

Whoopdedo! Still won't be able to get a Bovril after HT in the TE....I now make every effort not to buy anything from the Kiosks.

Omelette in the basket . Now theres an idea.
Basket meals,has this been tried before ?
Could be onto a winner there.

I'm hoping they are going to bring back the guy who used to go round the ground with his tank of hot tea, dispensed via a tap!!  REmember him Reg?

Last time I bought any food or drink in the CG....that was proper tea....hot and sweet, just the job on a freezing December afternoon....and if you trod on the inverted cardboard cup just right, it would make a most satisfactory bang.

Basket meals used to be big back in the day (90s?)

Going off on a tangent re pub grub, was there a place called the cold harbour around blunsden hill area before? Was there a big garden with a crow's nest in it?  :hmmm:

The Cold Harbour is still there I think...used to have a bity of a kid's play area, not sure if it still does.

Chicken in the basket was a 60's thing....height of sophistication...closely followed by scampi.

I remember basket meals being on the menu at The Sun Inn by Coate when I worked there about a decade ago. Sausage, scampi or chicken if I recall correctly.

I quite like basket meals, would be doable at the CG surely? Just takes a Deep fryer and some cardboard box-type things, for eco-ness surely?

I wanted to find the scene from the footy hooligans episode of Life on mars where Sam Tyler 'invents' chicken in a basket, but couldn't. Needless to say that's what I think of when I think of basket meals.

They're not missing anything Paul I can assure you.  The portions are pathetic and the chips are generally verging on being cold.  And before anyone starts, I only know because I nick a few when I treat my son  :)

there seem to be a lot of secret chip eaters in this thread  :hmmm:

I understand there are also aspiring chip eaters should the supply become available.  :D

Is the chippy by the ground that advertises Sausage and chips for £2 any good?

"Treat" him you say?  Expect a visit from the NSPCC.

Yes, but the service is painfully slow!

There is always a queue outside that place on matchday when we go past, must do a Rooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring trade.

The Frying Fish is the best chipie in Swindon

They do indeed, Jed (!)  I often use it on match days.  The only problem is that there is only one person serving.  She copes very well but, inevitably, the queue moves very slowly.

Its not a £400K improvement to the clubs finances. The club will save £200K in costs and have a £200K guaranteed profit but you have to factor in whatever the club currently makes from this activity.

I have no idea what that figure is but it must be a lot more than 0! Hospitality packagages were sold out last season.

Not knocking the deal as it seems pretty sensible to me as long as Lindley dont go bust paying us our £200K!