Once completed, in March 2015, the extended centre will include a food hall featuring an award winning butcher, a wider range of gifts and a covered outside plant sales area to weatherproof the shopping experience.

The restaurant extension will have multiple uses as it will be used for talks and demonstrations throughout the year. By adding up to 200 covers and soft seating areas Pennells Lincoln will join the ranks of the largest restaurants in a UK garden centre.

The number of free parking spaces will be increased by approximately 100 plus additional disability parking bays.

The main contractor for the extension is Maher Millard and the architect is Evolution Design.

Chairman Richard Pennell told GTN Xtra, ‘As the development is an extension our existing restaurant will not be affected during the busy Christmas period.  Fortunately our kitchens are big enough to allow for further increase in sales, we will just have to alter our serverys add we will be looking to add some extra equipment and functionality."  

"The development of the centre is very exciting for us and will provide an improved shopping experience for our customers with a wider range of products. However the heart of the business will continue to be our love of plants, gardens and gardeners!”

In 2008/2009 the Lincoln Garden Centre was redeveloped with new retail areas and a restaurant. At the time this doubled the size of the centre and increased the number of seats in the restaurant to 270. All a far cry from the initial beginnings of the company in 1780.

Each week Catering Design Group, one of the UK’s leading restaurant and commercial catering design companies, provides readers of GTN Food Xtra with a range of solutions, hints and tips around the theme: “Are you wise to the value of good design!”

This weeks topic is:  “Understanding your DNA”

Good design starts with good research.

A great designer will get to know the clients DNA and how you want your customers to see and enjoy the space. It is so important to really get under the skin of what you want to achieve and to understand your values, personality, history of the business, the local area, your customers, together with potential new customers and of course the competition. 

Successful restaurants and cafés have a point of difference and an individual personality which has to be determined at the outset to obtain customer buy-in and drive loyalty. 

To find out more, contact Catering Design Group at: info@cateringdesign.co.uk

http://www.cateringdesign.co.uk/

Tuesday 23rd September marks the return of the multi-award-winning lunch! show to the Business Design Centre in Islington, London.  With its focus on new innovations from across the food-to-go sector, this popular two-day event has gained a loyal following among buyers and decision makers responsible for garden centre catering.

With nearly six thousand attendees last year from across the retailing, hospitality, snacking and catering sectors, lunch! may need little introduction.  Since its launch in 2008, the event has enjoyed significant year-on-year growth in attendance (the 2013 show was 37% up on 2012) and won three best trade show awards along the way (including, most recently, the top prize at the Exhibition News Awards in March).   

For 2014, it’s on track for its biggest sell-out edition yet.  The 300-strong exhibitor line-up is as comprehensively eclectic as ever – filled with a who’s who of companies that will be helping to shape the future of the catering sector over the next twelve months.

“I think lunch! is the premier place for food retailers to get an insight into all the food innovation that is happening across the country,” comments frequent visitor Andrew Walker, former MD of Pret A Manger.

It is this focus on innovation, which keeps leading operators like Dobbies, Haskins, M&S, Tesco, EAT., Waitrose, Costa, Harrods, Gate Gourmet, Network Rail, Compass, Sodexo, Brakes and Hilton Worldwide to thousands of independents, returning year after year.

The latest innovations

Valued at over £14.9bn, the British lunchtime market is big business.  And it’s only going to get bigger.  Get your food-to-go offering right and your garden centre catering can offer plenty of lucrative sales. 

New exhibitors for 2014 include Metcalfe's skinny, Manitowoc Foodservice, Meridian Foods, Of The Earth Superfoods, Sarrion’s Macarons, Jax Coco, CHOC +, Duke of Delhi, Jealous Sweets, Coburg Coffee Company, and Francino.  

Returning exhibitors include Reynards (UK), Pidy, The Consett Popcorn Company, Taylors of Harrogate, eteaket Tea, Sweet Ideas, Sponge Cakes, Crown Foods - WAT KITCHEN, Square Pie, Freshfayre Chilled Foodservice, Adelie Foods Group, Odysea, Glen Dimplex Professional Appliances, Radnor Hills, SFD, Tudor Tea & Coffee, Butterware, Biopac, Bel UK Foodservice, Kavis, and Alan Nuttall. 

Make a date with lunch!

The show’s Working lunch! Theatre (sponsored by Magrini) is renowned for attracting ‘inspirational’ big names from across the food to go retailing and contract catering industry, and this year is no exception.  Confirmed speakers include representatives from Starbucks, EAT., Leon, Cook & Garcia, Pizza Rossa, British crowdfunding site Crowdcube, Horizons, and The NPD Group; plus an ‘Allergens Legislation Update’ from Wendy Duncan, R&D deploy manager at Unilever Food Solutions. 

Martin Hambleton, head of procurement & innovation at En Route International, will also be adding lunch! speaker duties to his impressive resumé.  As a former senior buyer at EAT. and Elior UK, Hambleton has been an “avid supporter of lunch! since the conception”, calling it “the best trade show a buyer can attend”. 

“I always find lunch! a great source of trends and innovation,” comments Hambleton.  “Lunch times are notoriously short these days, and food-to-go needs to deliver the lunch experience in short, sharp and innovative ways.”

The show’s free Keynotes, the popular 30-stand Innovation Zone, the annual British Smoothie Championships (also sponsored by Magrini), and the Innovation Challenge Showcase (offering a preview of all the latest new product developments) are all located on the show’s aptly-named Upper Feature Level.  

lunch! returns to the Business Design Centre, London on 23-24 September 2014. To register for your free trade ticket to lunch! in advance, please visit www.lunchshow.co.uk (and quote priority code LUN98 where prompted).

Newly launched eXpresso PLUS offers a fresh alternative to the UK On-the-Go coffee market. As part of the Freedom Refreshments Group it brings over 50 years’ of experience in the hot beverage market and boasts customers across a range of industries including gardening, retail, baking, healthcare, hospitality and many more.

Garden centre catering has grown over 50% in recent years, and now accounts for as much as 20% of garden centre turnover with this figure expected to rise to 90% over the coming year*. And although UK coffee consumption has reached an all-time high with 70 million cups drank daily it doesn’t stop at coffee. The UK firmly remains a nation of tea drinkers with double the number of cups drank daily at 165 million. On top of this the UK herbal and specialist tea market has seen significant growth of over 83% in recent years. In todays’ competitive market providing the complete hot beverage solution is key to attracting and retaining a loyal customer base.  

The key benefit of working with eXpresso PLUS is that it offers a tailored solution dependent on the needs of individual customers. With a comprehensive range of machines and surrounds to suit virtually any space eXpresso PLUS stocks everything from self-serve low maintenance towers for the garden centre to traditional espresso machines for the café. It also offers a full range of fresh and dried ingredients including Bean2Cup and soluble coffee products, fresh leaf tea, hot chocolate and soup. On top of that in partnering with many of the world’s leading consumer branding including LavAzza, Nescafé, PG tips, Knorr and many more it gives you the chance to instantly attract brand loyal customers, ensuring optimal sales opportunities for you and your business. Additionally, you are provided with marketing and promotional support through a range of point of sale materials for your outlet. As well as this each brand partner spends millions of pounds each year in consumer marketing, advertising spend that benefits your business as every advert for them is also an advert for you!

eXpresso PLUS offers a range of finance options including free and pay vend solution. Depending on your individual needs the self-serve machines offer a range of payment methods including coin, note and card payment making it a quick and convenient service to your customers. And the best part is you only need to sell 6 cups a day to break even!

In recent months eXpresso PLUS has launched solutions in various sectors across the UK. A key new customer has been Blackstock Farm in West Sussex, see pictures below. It boasts two wedding venues, a childrens recreational area and a café onsite and there has long been an appetite for coffee at the farm. Before launching the LavAzza solution it had worked with some other providers both branded and unbranded but never felt entirely satisfied with the service provided. Partnering with eXpresso PLUS means it can use the same supplier for all branded machines across the business including in the café and the self-serve tower in the recreational area. Since installation it has seen consistent growth in sales with one of the key factors being that the tower requires minimal maintenance and no resource to operate it.

Manish Shah, Director, eXpresso PLUS told GTN Food Xtra: "‘The response to our products has been great. The key to our success has been a combination of providing tailored solutions to our customers as well as the brands partners we work with. Consumer tastes vary in different areas of the country so it’s important to offer a flexible and complete hot drink solution including tea. By giving customers the choice we put the control back in the customers hand and ensure we don’t offer a one size fits all solution". 

Out of 10,000 food and drink entries into Great Taste 2014 the list of stars is now available and it reads with as much thrill and anticipation as a tasting menu from a Michelin-starred chef.  From north to south, east to west, farmer to brewer, baker to butcher – producers have delivered the most outstanding entries to expert judges who have blind-tasted their way through every kind of food and drink from humble beef dripping to rhubarb vodka.

An example of how a Great Taste Tasting Menu could be created, at home, in a deli, restaurant or pub, inspired by some of the stars of 2014 –

• Hand sliced side of Smoked Salmon (Isle of Lewis, Scotland - Uig Lodge)
• Organic Seaweed & Rock Salt Sourdough Torsade (London – Flour Power City)
• Goats’ Butter (Yorkshire - St Helen’s Farm)
• Free Range Gloucester Old Spot Pork Belly (Primrose Herd)
• Gigot of Hogget from an upland farm (St Anne’s, Lockerbie – Annanwater)
• Himalayan Salt Aged Rib Chop (Northern Ireland – Hannan Meats)
• Caramelised Fig & Marsala Gelato (London – DiSotto Foods)  
• Italian Almond Biscuit (Yorkshire – Dough) 
• Blackcurrant with Juniper Dark Truffle (East Yorkshire - White Rabbit Chocolate Co.)
• Ashridge Sparkling Vintage Cider (Devon - Ashridge Cider)
• Bird & Wild Forest Grown Organic Coffee (Dorset – Beanpress Coffee Co.) 

Now many producers will wait with baited breath to see if they are in with a chance of the top awards in each region which will be announced at the Great Taste Golden Fork Awards Dinner in London on September 8^th.  

Great Taste is simply about taste, not clever branding or smart packaging.  Judges are presented with a spoonful of jam, a pie, a slice of salami, or a cup of espresso, with no wrappings, jars or marks – and they taste, confer and re-taste before making the decision on whether a product should be a Great Taste 1-, 2- or 3-star winner. 

Judged by over 400 of the most demanding palates belonging to food critics, chefs, cooks, Women’s Institute judges, producers and a host of food writers and journalists, Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers. In the words of highly regarded restaurant and food critic Charles Campion, “Great Taste is the only food award worth having”.

When a product wears a Great Taste label it carries a badge of honour but more importantly, the Great Taste logo is a signpost to a wonderful tasting product.  Hundreds of judges have worked hard to discover the very best food and drink through hours and hours of blind-tasting a total of 10,000 different products.       

Of those 10,000 entries, only 153 have been awarded Great Taste 3-star.  A panel of supremely talented judges including; Masterchef judge and restaurant critic Charles Champion, BBC Food Programme presenter Sheila Dillon, Great British Bake Off winner Frances Quinn, MasterChef 2013 Natalie Coleman, food buyers from Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Whole Food Markets, and chefs including James Golding, Chef Director of The Pig hotel group, have together re-judged and tasted yet again the 3-star winners to finally agree on the 2014 Top 50 Foods, the Golden Fork Trophy winners as well as the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2014. 

Facts and figures about Great Taste:

10,000 different products entered in 2014

Judging in Dorset at Guild HQ in Gillingham and several other Dorset venues, also in Belfast, Devon and Middlesex

2531  awarded 1-star

697    awarded 2-star

153    awarded 3-star

The next stage involves; the Top 50 Foods being announced on twitter @guildoffinefood #Top50Foods. Then the final announcement of the winner of Great Taste Supreme Champion 2014, sponsored by Harrods, and the regional Golden Fork Awards will be made in London on the 8^th September.  

Q:  How many scones does the pack make?
A:  The pack makes six moist gluten free scones., that don’t dry out when you get them out of the oven. The recipe has been made without rice flour which dries the scones out. It is a nut free recipe too.  Enjoy fresh or freeze and thaw for the following day.

Q:  What they can be made with i.e. Yoghurt etc..
A:  Scones can be made: gluten free, wheat free, dairy free and are no added sugar. Simply add butter/margarine and natural yoghurt. To make dairy free replace with dairy free margarine and soya yoghurt, apple sauce/puree or mashed banana.

Q:  What is the retail price?
A:  RRP £2.99. (8 x 400g)

Q:  Where can Garden Centres get supplies from?
A:  Direct from Glebe Farm, we offer free delivery for 8 mixed cases of gluten free goodies, or via distributors: Hider, CLF, Essential, Suma, Shire and CressCo.

Glebe Farm contact details:

Contact Simon for a sample on 01487 773282, office@glebe-flour.co.uk, www.glebe-flour.co.uk

Glebe Farm also make fresh loaf style gluten free cakes and mini's too! - Samples are available, just contact the office above.