Summer 2004 represented a particularly difficult period for Blakemore Food Service with the business facing a number of operational and financial issues. This had a knock-on impact upon the company’s workforce and staff moral.
The Board agreed a recovery plan to address many of these problems. A key aspect of this plan was increased emphasis on corporate responsibility which involved a formal link between the company’s community programme and business objectives. As a result, school partnerships were to become an integral part of the Blakemore Food Service culture.
As a food service company, which serves education authorities, Blakemore realises that it must offer further support to schools and students. Therefore, the company’s education programme is not only differentiated from larger competitors by providing an added service to future and potential customers, but it also gives the company invaluable insight into the minds of young people in relation to the products they provide (i.e. school dinners).
This has been useful over the past 12 months when the company has worked with educational authorities in devising new menus to conform to the Government’s new healthy eating guidelines. The programme helps raise the company’s profile within the local community not only to attract future workers, but also to build the company brand.
A number of educational projects were identified, including an extension of a project to provide a GCSE Applied Business Studies Case Study for students, which created a bespoke web-based study tour to improve the service provided. The company supplements this by leading staff presentations at schools and hosts physical tours of the depot for students. Other measures include a Healthy Eating Team Challenge and a designated school for depot fundraising.
Blakemore Food Service’s Corporate Responsibility programme and educational work has played an increasingly important role in the company’s tendering process, particularly when bidding for public sector contracts. This work has assisted the company in retaining contracts with Birmingham Education Authority and Social Services, Staffordshire County Council and Warwickshire County Council.
