More Complaints about Lindley Catering

Recent posts on Bulls Banter, the Hereford United forum, have once again cricitised the quality of the catering at Edgar Street. The company responsible is Lindley Catering who describe themselves as 'a national caterer with a local touch'. They are based at Stoke on Trent.

Here is one post made after Friday's game:

I was in the F2G (Cargill) stand last night, went down to the tea hut at half time. Stood, in the pi55ing rain for almost 15 minutes, in the queue, and when I got to the front of it, asked for "2 teas, a cheeseburger, & a Mars bar." I was told they'd run out of hot water, so, no tea! No Mars bars either, neither did they have my 2nd or 3rd choices! No cheese burgers, because they had no cheese!
I got a burger (price £2.90) which was foil wrapped, had obviously been cooked earlier in the evening, and was dried out, and, almost inedible. I threw half of it away.
DO WE DESERVE TO BE TREATED LIKE THIS??
I am seriously bloody angry....Someone (the catering contractors) is taking the pi55, and worse still, someone, in the offices, doesn't care a toss, otherwise they wouldn't have handed the contract back to these rip off merchants for another season!

Another Post:

I was sold an out of date Kit Kat chunky at Friday evening's game by the kiosk at the corner of the Meadow End and Len Weston. When I went to complain that the wrapper said that it was out of date on 1 Sept, the lad behind the counter checked the box and found that others were the same. Unbelievable!

There have been other similar posts in the past and last year club secretary Joan Fennessy wrote to Lindley Catering about supporters complaints:

Lindley Catering Limited

Dear Paul,

Following the disgraceful situation when out of date pies and sausage rolls were delivered to our ground for sale to supporters, we have now received complaints that canteens are selling out of date crisps.

This is a situation that is intolerable to us and to our supporters. We now require assurances that measures are put in place to prevent the problem reoccurring.

The effects of the incidents are that supporters have lost faith in your ability to provide the service required.

We have monthly liaison meetings with a small group of supporters. We would therefore suggest that a representative from your company attend a meeting to reassure the group that you will treat the matter with urgency and measures are put in place to prevent it happening again.

Yours sincerely

Joan Fennessy Company Secretary / Director

It is understood that Hereford United recently signed a new deal with Lindley which includes the catering for match day sponsors as well as the kiosks around the ground.

And it may be that Hereford United are making more money out of them than in the past if a report about Colchester Football Club is anything to go by.

They did a deal with Lindley Catering last April worth £8 million pounds (in turnover) according to Caterersearch.

Lindley, which has signed up for five years, will look after corporate hospitality and public feeding on match days as well as running a café open to the public and conferencing at the site.

Just across Hereford Lindley Catering look after the needs of visitors to Hereford Racecourse.

According to Lindley:

At Hereford we have tailored our menus with the racecourse to deliver wholesome home dishes, with a local Herefordshire twist that is filling the restaurants with the local punters.

Back to their work at Football Clubs:

Lindley Group will operate your public catering kiosks efficiently, feeding the fans. This is a unique logistical challenge.

Our aim always is to maximise venue sales/spend per head in a very short business time.

We serve only branded, high quality products in a fast and friendly manner. All the clubs for which Lindley cater we show a profitable catering return; this is because of the care and attention to detail that are our hallmark and our company culture.

So there you have it - Lindley make lots of money, Hereford United get some income with no hassle, and after all it's only some supporters that are complaining.

Meanwhile Exeter City recently dismissed Lindley Catering and decided to run the operation in-house.

And they are experimenting with an outside catering area behind their FlyBe stand.

The covered area will sell Carlsberg lager, Tribute ale and both Blackthorn and Gaymers cider. There will also be fish and chips as well as pies and pasties.

Food for thought.

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