Grand Finale

‘Britain’s Got great Food’, a CH&Co Catering Ltd marketing initiative to promote and celebrate regional dishes from throughout the UK, has resulted in an overall sales increase of 8% across CH&Co staff restaurants.

The campaign kicked off on 1st June when CH&Co took their customers on a five-week culinary tour of the UK.  The independent caterers distributed special savings stamps booklets (reminiscent of Green Shield Stamps booklets) and awarded customers with stamps each time they purchased one of the featured dishes. The campaign was supported by a dedicated website with all of the dishes and recipes for people to try at home: www.britainsgotgreatfood.co.uk

The 40 finalists with the highest number of stamps saved met at London Zoo for the Grand Finale of Britain’s Got Great Food on Tuesday 22nd September to compete for a luxury, culinary-themed weekend break of their choice. The Finale included a food-themed ‘fastest fingers on the buzzer’ quiz, followed by “The Price is Right”, a quiz where the finalists had to guess what certain food items cost in the 1970’s. The highlight of the evening was when Paul Hurren, CH&Co Managing Director – and a former pastry chef – iced a Union Jack flag onto a cake. Following the format of the popular TV show, ‘The Generation Game’, the five remaining finalists were given two minutes to complete the same task.  

Caroline Fry, Managing Director of CH&Co, said:” When we were planning our marketing for 2009 we really wanted customers to enjoy some feel-good factor. The economic crisis was growing and no one knew where it would end. We talked about comfort food but we wanted to go one step further with some real nostalgia.

“We knew that with customers watching what they spent, the High Street would suffer more than us.  But we were also painfully aware that client organisation redundancies were looming, potentially reducing our customer base.  We needed to counter this threat by encouraging both new and existing customers to use their in-house facilities more often, and with a greater spend, by adding a competitive element. 

“Our goal was to at least maintain sales levels so it really has surpassed all of our expectations, particularly when you consider that June turned out to be the hottest month on record for years, so our customers were even less likely to use their in-house facility during that period!  If we couple the financial improvement with the positive customer feedback and improved rapport between our staff and their customers, this has undoubtedly been a very successful promotion”.

Caroline Fry concluded:”This campaign has it all; nostalgia, great team spirit and a real sense of pride in what this great country has to offer. It has had a big impact on how our customers view British food.”

The overall winner was Ibrahim Barclay, a software developer with BUPA in Sunbury, Middlesex.