For a change BN isn't covering a game from many seasons ago but instead an article about the catering at Edgar Street published this weekend in 2008.
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was sold an out of date Kit Kat chunky at Friday evening's game by the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complain that the wrapper said that it was out of date on 1 Sept, the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the disgraceful situation when out of date pies and sausage rolls were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complaints that canteens are selling out of date crisps.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.