Grapevine

2 June 2023

Welcome to this week’s Grapevine, the place to get your bitesize FM updates in one place, in a handy five-minute read.

Got a story for us? Please send news stories & press releases to: newsdesk@twinfm.com.

Elior UK Launches Street Kitchen Collective

Leading contract caterer Elior UK launches Street Kitchen Collective, a dynamic collection of own-brand concepts and street food partners bringing together flavours from around the globe: from Aegean-inspired health bowls to West African chicken stews.

The Street Kitchen Collective concept is a collaborative effort between Elior’s food development team, operations team and client partners, created to meet the demands for more exciting world flavours and better flexibility in the food offering.

The Street Kitchen Collective has launched with six Elior concepts and five independent partners including: Jollof Mama, Nigeria’s finest dishes; Makes Miso Hungry, home-cooked Japanese food; Urban Rajah, Indian street food; Nina Parker, chef and international food writer specialising in Mediterranean food; and Shu Han Lee, food writer and creator of Southeast Asian cuisine.

Market insights informed the team that consumers are looking for dining experiences that are about more than just the food itself – they seek shared experiences built around exciting variety in cuisines and formats. This rise in customer demand has therefore paved the way for Elior to introduce its new flexible street food offer following extensive research and trend analyses to identify successful and premium independent food providers.

With plans to rapidly scale up the concept, Elior continues to develop more appetising concepts while constantly on the lookout for new partners across the UK who are passionate about developing boundary-pushing food and help bring new tastes and flavours to customers in the workplace, universities and beyond. Consequently, the Collective will see constant evolution in line with food and hospitality market trends.

Street Kitchen Collective will introduce brand partners and their authentic offer to clients in a variety of ways: a street food pop-up where the partners visit a client site and run sessions about the brand and menu, or via menu events where sites are able to use the menus and branding of their chosen brand partner.

The Street Kitchen Collective will be rolled out across Elior’s stadia, education, university, and B&I sectors. Pilot schemes with a B&I client in the finance sector witnessed increased footfall and a 16% uplift in sales on a street food pop-up day and created an attractive incentive to come into the office.

The Street Kitchen Collective brand was carefully curated to be fun, bright, and colourful with global influences woven into the design.

Yoko Nakada, founder of Makes Miso Hungry, said: “I am honoured to be one of the partners chosen for Elior’s Street Kitchen Collective. This concept is so exciting. It is great that Elior is supporting local food businesses and customers can experience authentic Japanese food such as mine. It’s clear consumers are excited by new culinary experiences and flavours!”

Michal Seal, Marketing & Commercial Director, Elior said: “We’re incredibly proud of the Street Kitchen Collective. It injects fun and a world of international flavours into our catering service offering, whilst supporting local businesses. The Street Kitchen Collective adds excitement to the lunch calendar and gives our customers a chance to enjoy flavoursome foods in a relaxed, casual environment.”

Mid-Tech Services Ypgrades Waste Carriers Certificate

Mid-Tech Services have upgraded to the Upper Tier Waste Carrier Certificate from the lower tier they previously held under the Waste (England & Wales) Regulations 2011.

The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 require businesses to confirm that they have applied the waste management hierarchy when transferring waste and include a declaration to this effect on their waste transfer note or consignment note.

As they are now Upper Tier Waste Carrier certified, clients can rest assured that Mid-Tech Services is a safe and credible company to use for the removal of existing systems from your site.

“We have been looking at upgrading this certification for a while now as this helps minimise risks when removals are happening. The removal of existing systems such as gas boilers and refrigeration for AC units are crucially important to get right, not only for the our physical health but for the greater good of the environment too. Making sure we recycle every part we can fits not our ambitious goals of becoming more sustainable as a business,” said Ian Brain, Health & Safety / Compliance Manager, Mid-Tech Services Ltd.

Willmott Dixon Completes World-Class Members’ Indoor Tennis Centre for The All England Lawn Tennis Club

Willmott Dixon has handed over a new state-of-the-art Members’ tennis complex for year-round use to The All England Lawn Tennis Club. The complex is located adjacent to the main site for tennis’ most prestigious event, The Championships, Wimbledon.

The world-class facility includes 12 new tennis courts (six indoor acrylic and six outdoor clay), associated clubhouse facilities and an underground tunnel that connects to the main estate. The 338-space underground car park will be used all year by Members and utilised as a transportation hub during The Championships to support courtesy car operations.

The timber clad building features a unique undulating double-curved roof to mimic the play of tennis. Controlled natural lighting and ventilation provides a brilliant setting for uninterrupted play, while externally the building and clay courts are set seamlessly into its surroundings. The project has also included extensive landscaping, retaining The All England Lawn Tennis Club’s guiding principle of ‘Tennis in an English Garden’ throughout its grounds.

Sustainability was a key focus. With a range of energy saving and sustainable initiatives utilised, a natural ventilation system, heat pumps and PVs were installed. The carpet tiles throughout are also 100% carbon neutral and the entrance mats are made of goat hair rather than plastic. During construction, schemes were put in place to ensure a large percentage of waste was diverted from landfill and transportation emissions were minimised.

The works commenced following The Championships in 2019 and spanned the pandemic period, with the team able to continue operations by adopting stringent Covid-19 safety guidelines as directed by the Construction Leadership Council and to meet The All England Lawn Tennis Club’s standards.

Commenting on the completion, Tim Henman, former world No.4 and AELTC Board Member, said: “The Indoor Tennis Centre is the finest facility of its kind that I have seen anywhere in the world. It is a huge asset to the Club and The Championships, and I am sure both amateur and professional players will relish the opportunity to use this facility in the future.”

Richard Poulter, managing director for Willmott Dixon in the South added: “We are delighted to hand over this incredible building to The All England Lawn Tennis Club, providing outstanding facilities for its Members to enjoy in a location that is synonymous with excellence in everything associated with tennis. This is a project that myself and the team are immensely proud of, and we look forward to seeing it being enjoyed by players and Members alike.”

The completion of the Indoor Tennis Centre for The All England Lawn Tennis Club marks Willmott Dixon’s latest high profile sports development. Previously the company completed a £30m fit-out of the East Stand at Twickenham Stadium. The project saw the improvement of hospitality facilities which cater for nearly 7,000 people at England’s home of rugby union.

26 May 2023

Corps Security Delivers £11K Cheque To Combat Stress at Fundraising Dinner

Corps Security presented a large cheque to leading veteran’s mental health charity, Combat Stress, at their fundraising dinner in London. The Tour De Corps team raised over £11,000 for the charity in April by cycling from Glasgow to London during a gruelling 7-day challenge.

Corps Security colleagues cycled the length of the country, beginning at the Corps Monitoring Alarm Receiving Centre in Glasgow, and visiting all local branch offices of Corps Security on the way, including Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol, until reaching the finish line in Farringdon, London, 7 days later.

Andy Topp, Sales and Marketing Director at Corps Security and participant on the Tour De Corps challenge commented: “We were delighted to attend the fundraising dinner for Combat Stress in May and felt this provided the perfect opportunity to present our Tour de Corps cheque. We would like to thank the amazing riders for such a stella effort, and to all those who sponsored us throughout the week, which saw us surpass our initial £5,000 target at the beginning of the challenge and passing our secondary target of £10,000 by the end of day 7. Every penny raised will support UK veterans with their mental health, and in particular their families to help those veterans integrate into civilian life.”

Combat Stress’ annual Supporters Dinner provides the charity with the opportunity to thank their supporters, whilst raising money through speeches, an auction and silent auction which raises thousands of pounds to support the essential work of the charity.

Corps Security, as a Social Enterprise, has made a commitment to Combat Stress alongside a few other charities, in support of UK veterans, with some customers donating 1% of their contract value to the charity every year.

To find out about Corps Security, and to learn about the social mission and Social Enterprise status, visit www.corpssecurity.co.uk.

Gritting Works Partners with Vaisala

Following a successful 2022/23 season, winter specialists Gritting Works has announced that they are to use forecasting data from Vaisala XWeather going forward into the 2023/24 winter season.

Nick Cox, Managing Director for Gritting Works said: “Having trialled Vaisala’s technology last season we were extremely impressed with the accuracy of the forecast when compared to real time measurements. Using Vaisala’s WX Horizon platform allows a targeted approach to our proactive gritting services and deployment decisions giving us accurate weather modelling up to 72 hours ahead.”

In addition to receiving accurate road surface forecasts, Gritting Works has also utilised a number of Vaisala TempCast physical sensors to be placed around their network which will feed real time surface temperatures and other data back into the platform to improve the accuracy of the forecasted data.

Neil Davis from Vaisala said “We are looking forward to supplying Gritting Works with their weather data. Wx Horizon is a new weather subscription service from Vaisala Xweather. Designed for winter maintenance professionals; It utilizes the latest IoT technology combined with a proprietary road weather model to generate enhanced site weather forecasts. Vaisala Cast Sensors report high-quality data from your local environment which greatly improves forecast accuracy. This allows you to make better decisions on how and when to treat your car parks, roadways and outdoor facilities”

Gritting Works is the winter maintenance specialists delivering proactive solutions to customers from pre-schools and industrial estates to medical research establishments.

Old Northern Uniforms to be Recycled Into Insulation as Train Operator Turns Environmental Mission to Employee Clothing

Old uniforms no longer needed by Northern staff are set to be shredded and turned into ‘further life products’ such as insulation and sound-boarding as part of a new environmental push by the train operator.

End of life uniform will be collected from depots and train crew centres on a regular basis before being shredded and used in one of three ways by their recycling partner, Avena, a specialist in brand security through processes including textile shredding, clothing destruction and textile recycling.

Some of the material, if of a pure fibre structure, will be used to create new items of clothing; some will be used to make new products including insulation, sound boards and partition walls; and those not suitable for either of these avenues will be incinerated to create energy as an alternative to landfill.

With a nearly 7,000-strong workforce, many of whom wear uniforms and workwear, the turnover of garments through natural wear and tear alone is significant.

Northern has tens of thousands of pieces of uniform and workwear in use by colleagues across the business at any one time.

Many of the items feature the Northern logo and therefore have to be disposed of safely for security reasons – to avoid the possibility of items being used by those looking to impersonate rail workers and gain access to restricted areas of depots and stations.

Mike Roe, safety and environment director at Northern, said: “We already recycle 70% of our waste, but we’re on a mission to get that to 74% by 2026. Uniforms are something we have in abundance and through natural wear and tear and turnover of staff we regularly have to order-in fresh supplies.

“By ensuring old items are being recycled rather than ending up in general waste we can reduce our environmental impact and support other businesses that are looking to source greener components for their products.”

Elliott Day, senior executive at Avena, said: “As a business we’re delighted to start working with Northern to help them achieve a complete secure solution for end-of-life uniform & workwear.

“At Avena we have implemented lockable units across multiple Northern locations so their staff are able to utilise the secure recycling facilities at the site most convenient to them.

“The old uniforms and workwear will be recycled in the most effective way possible which guarantees full landfill avoidance whilst assisting Northern with their environmental targets.”

On Sunday (21 May), Northern’s new summer timetable came into effect and all customers, especially those who have made regular journeys on the same train times, are advised to check before they travel. For more information, visit: www.northernrailway.co.uk/timetablechange

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.