PKL Blog

Care Home KitchenPods Profit Calculator

2012-01-26T06:09:00.000-08:00

Attention all care homes! We have introduced a great new feature on our website, which calculates the profit you could make by converting your existing kitchen space into additional bedrooms and hiring one of our KitchenPods.

Simply enter the size of your existing kitchen and the amount you charge for a bedroom per week, and our Profit Calculator will calculate the total profit you could make over five years. It does this by working out how many additional bedrooms could be created and the revenue they would generate, and takes into account the costs associated with converting your existing kitchen and hiring a KitchenPod.

It’s incredibly easy to use and provides you with a profit estimate instantly, so why not give it a try?

PKL shares international expertise with local A-Level students

2012-01-13T01:40:00.000-08:00

Three PKL staff visited Cleeve School earlier this week to help A-Level Business Studies students with a coursework project. The coursework was based on a fictional UK supermarket who wanted to expand into Europe, and the challenges of operating in a foreign country. Students came up with a list of questions to put to the PKL staff, covering issues such as operating with differing work hours, time zones, currency and cultural differences.

PKL staff Alan Kitto (HR), Sam Christie (Marketing) and Will Perry (Finance), were all delighted to be involved with the school, which is based just down the road from our office in Bishops Cleeve. Alan held mock interviews for Year 11 pupils at the school at the end of last year and said we'd be happy to help out at the school again in future. Matt Prior, Head of Business and Economics at the school, then got in touch asking if PKL could help with this project as we have extensive experience of operating overseas.

You can read more in The Gloucestershire Echo, who covered the story.

PKL Food Cubes Create an Impact

2012-01-05T02:41:00.000-08:00

Our Food Cubes are really taking off – interest is soaring, and we have been receiving media coverage in publications such as Cost Sector Catering. Following the huge success of our Food Cube at Oasis Academy in Brightstowe, we have been receiving a huge number of enquiries and are currently working with several schools to discuss their requirements and put designs together.

The Food Cube, an innovative catering concept from PKL, was developed in partnership with BAM FM, who look after facilities in over 30 schools. The Food Cube provides an additional serving area at school lunch and break times, and can also be used as a tuck shop facility. By reducing queuing and serving times, it encourages pupils to stay on site at lunchtime and helps prevent them leaving site to buy unhealthier alternatives elsewhere. Keeping lunchtime spend on site also increases profits and enables a wider range of food to be served.

At Oasis Academy, the Food Cube has been very popular with pupils, and has led to an increase in the uptake of school meals as well as easing lunchtime congestion in the existing serving areas.

For more information on our Food Cubes, see our website or contact us to speak to one of our project consultants.

Winter Olympics Trade Visit to Sochi

2011-12-06T02:42:00.000-08:00

PKL's Commercial Director Peter Schad has set off on a trade visit to Sochi in Russia to promote the company ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics. PKL has a wealth of Olympic experience which includes providing kitchens and catering equipment to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Athens, Sydney and Beijing Olympics as well as the Youth Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and many more similar events.

The trip also has special significance for PKL, as we are based in Cheltenham, and Sochi is our twin town. Cheltenham Racecourse kindly donated some scarves, and Cheltenham Town FC generously provided a signed football shirt to be taken over (see photo, courtesy of Glos Media). The Mayor of Cheltenham also wrote a letter introducing PKL to the Mayor of Sochi.

The story has been featured in local newspaper The Gloucestershire Echo, and was also mentioned on BBC Radio Gloucestershire.