In This Issue
Garden Centre sales reach record levels 2 weeks after re-opening
Today, #FloralFriday is all about the Children!
Grow your sales with Evergreen Garden Care’s GYO best-sellers
"Open For Business: Lessons Learned from Lockdown and The First Week of Trading". Watch the webinar replay now
GrowNation stores take 40% of sales outside business hours. Online garden sales booming.
Covid-19 Safe - Barton Grange Style
Post-Lockdown trading re-starts at 48% down year to date
Bump Up Your Colour Pot Sales
Good TV coverage for gardening
#FloralFriday was a great reminder of RHS Chelsea
Four Oaks Trade Show 2020 Cancelled
Massive increase in demand for VegTrug
LifestyleGarden® thanks keyworkers with special giveaway
CSY launch Ecommerce Sites to help Garden Centres during the Covid-19 Panademic
A cut above on ground below
Plant Area General Assistant
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
HTA Launches Virtual New Plant Awards
GIMA confirms Consumer & Design Trends webinar series
The UK’s Infrastructure Capacity to Reprocess Post-Consumer Plastic Needs to Double by 2022 to Meet Plastic Packaging Tax Demands
The best of last week's
Garden Centres back on the right track - UPDATED - New comment from Barton Grange, Newbank, Langlands and Green Pastures
Making garden centres friendly, safe and accessible again
Smart Face Masks
Orderly queues form as garden centres in England re-open
Solex Exhibition – Cancelled
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
Greenhouses used in trial of "Covid-safe" dining
lunch! postponed until September 2021
Catering Design Group's ten top tips for reopening your catering facilities safely
UK turns to delivery cream teas during lockdown
Situations Vacant
Plant Area General Assistant
£18k - £20k, Bristol
 
Read more»
Send us your news and great ideas

Contact us with your news.

Email trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700


Catering Design Group's ten top tips for reopening your catering facilities safely
  1. Review restaurant layout and flows to promote social distancing
  2. Think about zoning and reorientation of areas – use screens for divisions and segregation in high risk areas
  3. Introduce protective screens around counters and till stations
  4. Minimise ‘touch points’ within high risk areas – introduce ‘hands-free’ operation wherever possible
  5. Increase Hygiene/sanitisation points – consider additional technology
  6. Use signage and removable graphics on walls, floors and furniture for information, controlling traffic and ensuring social distancing
  7. Consider alternative order/collection points and the use of technology throughout the restaurant
  8. Review kitchen flows and work stations to reduce the elevated risk of cross-contamination and ensure equipment is maintained
  9. Consider developing your outside spaces further
  10. Be creative! - think about how changes will impact the overall customer experience

Aware of the challenges faced by the foodservice sector due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Catering Design Group (CDG), has created ‘Designing Safe Spaces for Catering Environments’, an insight document highlighting the steps garden centres can take to help reopen their cafes and restaurants or to get them fully operational again with minimum risk to staff and customers.

 

The commercial kitchen and restaurant design company has considered all aspects of a catering operation, from design and operational requirements to the use of technology to help reduce risk of contamination.

Everything from the layout and flows to both front and back of house to materials and equipment is covered. 

 

Phil Howard, managing director of CDG said: “This is an incredibly tough time for garden centres, with a visit to the restaurant being a huge part of the overall experience, and we wanted to share our ideas and expertise with our clients and other operators to help with their plans to get their restaurants up and running again. This isn’t just about removing some tables and chairs to manage social distancing. Restaurant operators understand that there has to be a complex rethinking of an entire operation to make it a safe space for all, while still maintaining ambience and the dining experience.

 

“Mindful of the timescales involved and the cost to deliver these necessary changes, we see this as very much a collection of initial ideas to highlight and provoke further thought on the key areas where changes could be made. Clearly, these would need to be tailored to each individual garden centre.”

 

CDG has factored in considerations such as increased hygiene points, reviewing front and back of house layout and the flow of customers, minimising touch points, reviewing storage and waste capacity and introducing measures for social distancing compliance.

 

Mindful of how long the Covid-19 virus remains on different surfaces, the independent design company has also included advice on materials, with recommendations such as anti-bacterial wall cladding, anti-microbial upholstery and anti-bacterial touch screen technology.

 

 

“Design elements such as directional signage and graphics on walls and floors will be essential for social distancing compliance,” said Phil. “Operators will also have to consider touchless sanitisers and the availability of technology for contactless ordering, payment and collection. They will also need to think about zoning and the re-orientation of areas such as kitchen workstations to reduce the risk of cross contamination. For many garden centres there is a huge opportunity to develop their outside eating spaces to maximise the number of covers, whilst still implementing social distancing measures.

 

“We have scrutinised every aspect of a typical catering operation and hope that our thoughts will be of benefit to operators in these challenging times.”

 

‘Designing Safe Spaces for Catering Environments’ is available on request by emailing Steve Hutchings: steve.hutchings@cateringdesign.co.uk

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (0)
Comment
Name:*

Email Address:*

Comment:*