Blog
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Why work with GDC?
Now that we’re all approaching Covid’s anniversary, we can officially say, this has been a funny old year. We’re wondering what the next year will bring and one thing we can be certain of is change and a lot of it. We’ve been in a constant state of flux over the last year, flexing up, flexing down, closing, re-mobilising, adjusting services, adjusting staffing models. One thing our clients tell us is that we’ve been more pro-active than any of their other suppliers in terms of re-modelling, shifting and thinking about the best solutions to take our partnership forwards.
It hasn’t always worked and some clients have let their offices go completely, sadly meaning closure of workplace eateries and the letting go of so many good people. They key for us throughout this year and with any partnership we make, is the relationships we have with our clients and the vested interest we have in their services. The clients we work with tell us they enjoy working with us as it doesn’t feel like we’re part of two separate entities, it feels like we’re all part of one team. Chris has a personal relationship with all of our clients as well as the relationship our clients have with our day to day operations team. This is not because he’s a micro manager, in fact quite the opposite. It’s really just because we tend to partner with likeminded clients and Chris likes to have a coffee and to chat and usually a gossip about what’s going on in the world. (lots to talk about at the moment)
The last year has brought about a lot of change in the industry and we find ourselves being one of the few independent contract caterers left in London. We’re owned by a serial hospitality entrepreneur called Luke Johnson. If you haven’t heard of him you’ve probably heard of Le Caprice, The Ivy, Pizza Express which are all restaurants he was involved in. Latterly he’s behind Gail’s Bakery, All Star Lanes and The Bread Factory as well as sitting on numerous boards as a non-executive director. He’s also a published author and his material is well worth reading. He’s also quite fun and vocal to follow on Twitter. @lukejohnsonrcp His role as chairman to GDC gives us the financial stability to feel confident that even in the current climate, we will be here and independent for as long as we want.
We could also harp on about how much we care for our people, how our training means in our most recent staff survey 93% of our people were happy in their roles, we could go on about how we support British farmers and how we buy coffee from a farming cooperative in the Congo that we give 10% of all our coffee proceeds to. We could bore you about buying the best seasonal produce, about how we love technology and have won awards for it and how by the end of 2021 we are going to be completely single use plastic free. But that’s all stuff that you’d expect us to be doing. What really matters is you and how valued you feel as our client and that for us, is what our clients tell us makes us really different.
