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Royal Hospital Chelsea – Soane Stable Block – Catering audit for a Cafe and Restaurant
Assignment
Following our successful assignment of Royal Hospital Chelsea’s ‘Event’ business GFG were commissioned to undertake an independent audit of the Soane Stable block which had remained dormant for a number of years.
As a result of a successful HLF grant application which provided a significant contribution towards the £4.5m capital expenditure project, GFG were commissioned to not only evaluate the commercial opportunities for the new Visitor Centre ‘high tech’ conference room, but also asses interest from a number of leading ‘Public’ contract Caterers to tender and operate the venue
Output and Results
With the Soane Stable Block’s close association with the National Army Museum the assignment also involved engaging directly with other RHC key stakeholders to assess demand for this new Café, as we needed to put forward a strong and commercial business case to our list of selected contract Caterers. As a result we approached Bovingdons, Good Eating Company, Houston & Hawkes and Genuine Dining Company to attend an ‘open-day’ meeting to hear more about RHC’s future plans.
Within RHC we approached the Tours Manager, Visitor & Security Manager and Head of Catering including reviewing the direct competition within a quarter of mile of RHC. With the renovation work beginning in 2020 with the expected completion due in late 2021 we came to a number of conclusions and recommendations.
These were:-
- That unless there was a significant upturn in visitor numbers, the Café would not be commercially viable and would need to be heavily subsidised by RHC.
- With future plans to create a ‘direct walkway’ from the RHC Café to the NAM we discovered NAM’s Museum Café were not achieving annual budgeted revenue, so another significant factor for the Board’s future consideration.
In conclusion and following our Report submission, it was decided that the SSB Café would be initially operated in-house in Year 1 with a further review by GFG in 2021/22.