Brakes customers to benefit from alliance

In an enterprising move designed to further strengthen its culture of collaboration and innovation, leading foodservice supplier Brakes has announced an alliance with multi award-winning chef Mark Sargeant.

Founded in 1958 by three brothers from Kent and based on strong principles of innovating in food and service for caterers, the Brakes business has grown to supply 200,000 foodservice customers with 1.5m products every day across Europe.

Understanding the needs of chefs is at the heart of everything Brakes offers, and the new partnership affords the opportunity to harness Sargeant’s passion for food and his flair for appealing to diners on all levels.

Announcing the alliance Raj Tugnait, Operating board director at Brakes, said: “Our business is built upon the principle of ‘for chefs, by chefs’ so we are all very excited about working with Mark and seeing how his approach to ‘great food kept simple’ will further improve our range and bring greater success for our foodservice customers. Over the last 12 months Brakes has been transforming its business by building four new state of the art multi temperature sites, strengthening its fresh offer with Fresh Direct, and enabling caterers to access the broadest range of ingredients 24/7, 365 days-ayear via a new fully priced transactional online site.

Focusing on enhancing our food credentials by working with Mark is the next stage in this metamorphosis. At Brakes we are all chefs at heart and what we want to do, in conjunction with Mark, is ensure that food is at the very centre of our proposition.

“What attracted us to Mark in the first place is that he remains actively involved in the day-to-day running of his restaurants. As a result, he understands the challenges facing modern foodservice operators and, having achieved so much at such a young age, is a dynamic role model for aspiring chefs up and down the country.”

Sargeant – who was born in Kent – first came to prominence as a Sous Chef in the brigade that helped Restaurant Gordon Ramsay win three Michelin stars in the early nineties and was subsequently rewarded with an appointment as Head Chef at the new Gordon Ramsay at Claridges in 2001.

Here, he not only gained a Michelin star, but was also awarded the title of Chef of the Year. He opened his first restaurant, Rocksalt, in 2011.

www.brake.co.uk