Q Catering Supplies have been delivering a wide range of quality food and drink products to London and the South East for two decades.
The firm’s new 22,600 sq. ft facilities, including the recent 11,000 sq. ft freezer installation, have allowed it to undertake a range review and endeavour to not only build its comprehensive range of core products but also make space for new, innovative lines.
A trusted and reliable foodservice wholesaler, Q Catering is invested in its customers, offering an ever-increasing range of high-quality grocery, chilled, and frozen food products, from local and national suppliers. Steve Clarke, Managing Director Q Catering, tells Wholesale Manager how he believes the firm will grow to be one of the largest independent wholesalers in the South East.
Steve, what does your job as Managing Director involve?
So far, my role has been hands on in all areas of the business. You need to fully understand what goes on before you can make effective changes.
Areas of involvement so far are:
• Design and build of new frozen and ambient warehouse
• Design and ordering of new vehicles
• Changes to picking and loading
• Identifying areas for investment (infrastructure and staff)
• Sales strategy
• Business strategy
• Customer and supplier contracts
Do you personally get involved with looking after customers and developing new foodservice products?
Yes, there are some customers that I am involved with but not on a day-to-day basis. I am still actively involved in procurement, and I am responsible for some suppliers and product categories.
How big is Q Catering in turnover?
In the Spring, I began a vast communications overhaul to ambitiously achieve an annual turnover of £20 million by 2030, and so far, we’re on track. I’ve invested in a senior leadership team to help me achieve this goal and as of late last year, all the building blocks were in place. We’re working to a tight business plan to ensure we continue hitting targets to reach the end goal of £20m turnover.
How big a priority is using UK-grown ingredients?
Local sourcing is extremely important to Q and is an important USP of the business. We are members of Produced in Kent, and I am on the board. 2023 will see a focus on regional/British and artisanal products.
Do you cover the whole UK?
We currently deliver across the South East but have plans to widen the net next year and beyond.
What has the last year’s trading been like?
This year we have seen record trading days. We needed to meet demand, so we expanded our warehouse facility to 22,600 sq. ft from 11,00 sq ft. with approx. half being freezer space. This expansion not only increased efficiencies, saving around 5 hours a day, but it also allowed us to undertake a range review; building a comprehensive range of core products and make space for new, innovative lines to keep us up with trends and customer demand.
What kinds of foodservice and catering operations does Q Catering supply?
Q Catering currently provides products to over 830 businesses across the South East, ranging from pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes, schools, nursing homes, leisure centres and more.
We’re really keen to work with more independent hospitality businesses, so pubs and gastro pubs, restaurants, hotels, leisure facilities (golf clubs, football clubs etc), independent schools, sandwich bars, cafes, garden centres and within the care sector.
What different kinds of food products do you offer – how many food product lines do you offer, across how many categories?
Q Catering currently has over 2,000 quality staple grocery, chilled, and frozen food products on offer, from local and national suppliers. We are continuously adding to our product range and have lots of exciting plans for this year to come. Starting with an increase in healthy ingredients in line with HFSS legalities and plant-based options to meet growing demand.
What’s your lead time for orders?
Q Catering has a 24-hour online ordering system and handy APP. From Sunday 8th January we will have a dedicated Telesales operative to enable our customers to place an order up to 10pm for next day delivery. Whether they have forgotten to place an order or just want to add to an existing order, customers will be able to ring the main number and speak with a member of our telesales team who will be available from 8.30am – 10pm. We will also be introducing online payment and direct debit options later this year.
We’re all under pressure to be green. What are you doing to reduce your environmental impact? Do you have any electric vehicles in your fleet? How many refrigerated vans and lorries do you have?
Sustainability is definitely an important area of the business and something we’re taking steps on to continuously improve. For example, if we can stock products with low food miles or those with eco-packaging, we will. We’re offering more environmentally friendly non-grocery items such as straws and other disposables etc. and are encouraging our customers to use them where possible.
We also group our deliveries in the best way possible to try to keep travel down and are replacing our diesel cars with petrol hybrids; they will be more efficient and have a larger payload. Lastly, we collaborate with Fayreshare to reduce food waste.
Finally, where do you see Q Catering going?
I have a strong vision for the company and believe Q Catering will grow to be one of the largest independent wholesalers in the South East. We’re driven to continually invest in our clients through new NPD launches, facility developments and advice, as well as our staff through development, training, and personal benefits, and that’s something that will never change.
The landscape for next year certainly will be challenging for many businesses, with rising prices and people eating out less due to the cost-of-living crisis, but we still plan for growth here at Q Catering.
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