Healthcare Kitchen Solutions

PKL provide a wide range of temporary kitchens and catering equpiment for the healthcare sector, to cover planned kitchen refurbishments, to provide extra capcity during peaks in foodservice demand or to provide catering facilities at short notice in emergencies.

We have supplied a wide range of solutions to both public and private hospitals, ranging from temporary staff and visitor restaurant facilities, to complete managed kitchens, to emergency cold rooms when freezers have suddenly gone down.

PKL is also vastly experienced in providing solutions to the residential care sector. We have developed the Care Home Kitchen, a unit which can produce anywhere from 15-250 meals per day.

Contingency planning is often a must within the healthcare sector, with a detailed contingency plan often requirement in hosptial and care home kitchens. PKL provides a free contingeny planning guide, which is available upon request by email or hard copy.

PKL is a Buying Solutions registered company, meaning that we are pre tendered to supply public sector and government contracts.

For more information regarding PKL’s healthcare kitchen solutions, please click here.

Early British Success at Winter Olympics

PKL Group have successfully completed the installation and handover of the temporary catering facilities for the Athletes Village dining complexes in both Whistler and Vancouver for the forthcoming Winter Olympic Games.

PKL, the Portable Kitchen and catering equipment hire specialists who operate from Bishops Cleeve, just outside of Cheltenham began designing the kitchen and dining complexes in August 2008 and have had a permanent project team stationed in Canada since July 2009 working on the build, installation and maintenance of both facilities.

The two, 4000m2 kitchen and tented dining complexes will be used to cater for around 8,000 competitors, officials and staff taking part in Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which commences on 12th February. All of the kitchen and servery equipment used in the two dining halls has been transported from PKL in the UK and will return to the company once the Games have finished.

PKL Group are no strangers to undertaking projects of this scale, having supplied similar facilities to the last three summer Olympic Games, including Beijing 2008, where the company's equipment was used to serve over 200,000 meals per day.

During a recent visit to see the facilities in Canada, Company Directors Chris Irving, Peter Schad and Lee Vines found the time to visit delegates from Sochi, to begin discussion about the Winter Olympics in 2014. Sochi in Russia, which coincidently is twinned with Cheltenham, was awarded the event in 2007 and has already begun preparations for staging the next Winter Games.

Kitchen contingency plans are a must

PKL’s free Contingency Planning Guide provides an overview of the importance of kitchen contingency planning and helps users to produce their own personalised plan.

Contingency planning is vital for any catering operation. A contingency plan helps to minimise the adverse effects of sudden closure or disruption, so that in the event of an emergency, appropriate plans can be implemented quickly and efficiently to restore service as soon as possible. In some sectors, a kitchen contingency plan is a requirement, to ensure that foodservice operation is not interrupted, while a contingency plan may also be put in place to help manage seasonal peaks in food production with maximum efficiency.

PKL’s Contingency Planning Guide builds on the company’s 20+ years experience of delivering emergency kitchens and catering equipment at short notice. It provides a contingency planning checklist, outlining key considerations and highlights factors that are often unanticipated. For example, if you need an emergency kitchen, will it be necessary to close roads or lift it over other buildings? Or do you know what items of equipment you would need to maintain service to customers?

PKL’s emergency response service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to supply temporary catering facilities to clients that have suffered unforeseen emergencies such as fire, floods or equipment breakdown. Solutions range from single items of catering equipment to complete kitchens and restaurant facilities, which are usually up and running within a few hours of receiving the first emergency call (depending on the size of facility required).

In addition to the free Contingency Planning Guide, PKL can also provide bespoke contingency plans, tailored to each client’s exact requirements and business priorities.

To order a free copy of the Contingency Planning Guide, click here

For more information regarding PKL's contingency planning services, click below.

www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/contingencyplan.asp

PKL is one to recognise

PKL Group, the UK’s leading supplier of temporary kitchens and catering equipment for hire, has been announced as a finalist in the Sunday Times Fast Track ‘Ones to Recognise’.

Compiled by Oxford based research company Fast Track, ‘Ones to Recognise’ is part of the Sunday Times annual Profit Track 100 report. It showcases a selection of companies that are chosen on the strength of their management team, innovation, ability to overcome challenges and their potential for growth.

Managing director Chris Irving commented: “PKL has earned its market-leading position through a commitment to high quality products and innovation, as well as first rate project planning and customer service. These qualities have proved their value to customers during the difficult economic times and provide us with a strong foundation for our ongoing success. We are proud to be recognised alongside so many leading names in British industry”.

PKL Group has a range of over 900 portable kitchens and support units, including cold storage, dry storage and warewashing facilities, and over 9,000 items of catering equipment readily available for hire.

LACA / PKL School Kitchens Design Forum – London South Bank Centre

The latest LACA/PKL School Kitchen Design forum, held in London in February, addressed key issues relating to provision of school meals and associated facilities. Sponsored by PKL and the Local Authority Caterers Association, the event was attended by around 50 delegates representing local authorities, consultants and other stakeholders.

LACA Chair Beverly Baker opened the proceedings with a focus on the importance of school meals and associated facilities – in the context of the changing educational environment and the higher profile of nutrition amongst young people.

Continuing this theme, Liz Randall from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) explored the proposed amendments to regulations governing dining space and nutritional standards in school premises. It was clear from this presentation that improved facilities for both the preparation and consumption of food will play an even more important role in the future.

Factors influencing the take-up of school meals was the theme of a presentation by Linda Smith of the School Food Trust, who presented the findings of the School Lunch & Learning Behaviour Study. This study showed quite clearly that improving the dining room environment could play a pivotal role in increasing the acceptability of school meals to pupils.

The focus of the day then switched to the design and delivery of school kitchens. Robert Danks of Food Chain Solutions outlined a recent case study with Northamptonshire County Council, rolling out their “Hot Meal” plan in schools. Paul Saer of Buying Solutions followed, providing an overview of the Buying Solutions agency and John Robinson from PKL finished the first session with a presentation on PKL Group’s school kitchen solutions, including a number of case study examples.

After a lively question and answer session, delegates were then asked to work in groups to produce brief presentations for fellow delegates, covering their own successes and difficult situations in relation to planning kitchens and learning from operational use

Successes included training, marketing school meals and the use of regeneration kitchens. Areas of difficulty included the BB99 regulations, failure of architects, planners and contractors to listen to the people who will be running the facilities and a lack of understanding by head teachers. Funding for improving facilities was also perceived as a barrier to taking plans forward.

Following this interactive session the forum concluded with a presentation from Vic Laws of AVL Consulting, presenting the findings of a recent study into energy efficiency in school kitchens.

More information:

www.pkl.co.uk
www.schoolkitchens.com

PKL launches new website

The new PKL Group website (http://www.pkl.co.uk/), launched on 26th April 2010, provides visitors with fast access to information on the company’s key areas of expertise – including portable kitchens, long or short term equipment hire, system kitchens, event catering equipment, and rapid response kitchens.

For enhanced ease of use, each of these areas is also further sub-divided to enable visitors to quickly drill down to the specific information they require. By making use of the extensive cross-referencing users can also jump to related services such as site surveys, kitchen design, project management, delivery and installation.

Additional features on the site include notifications of special offers, useful tips for contingency planning and access to service and operating manuals for a wide range of catering equipment.

PKL also operates a ‘micro website’ dedicated to school kitchen and catering solutions at http://www.schoolkitchens.com/

Rapid Response Emergency Kitchens from PKL Group

 

Wherever permanent or temporary kitchen facilities are need FAST, PKL’s Rapid Response service is ready to deliver! Whether it’s for military use, disaster relief or a remote industrial project, our temporary kitchens can be delivered anywhere in the world with minimum delay.

Key features:

Field kitchen

Emergency kitchen

Camp kitchen

All specially designed for remote sites with rapid deployment, DROPS compatible and suitable for delivery by helicopter or fixed wing aircraft.

PKL has an unparalleled operational record in provision of field kitchen units to the world’s military, peacekeeping and rescue campaigns.

Our emergency kitchen units are robust, ISO rated container kitchen facilities, designed for durability and continuous operation. With options for on-board service such as electrical generators, water and wastewater storage, and water purification, our emergency kitchen facilities can operate even in areas with damaged or non-existent local services.

PKL Rapid Response provides a range of camp kitchen systems ranging from single camp kitchen modules to large open plan modular kitchens, for a spacious, efficient working environment. We can provide support areas for all our temporary kitchen units, scaling servery areas to your requirements and providing ablution blocks and laundry areas for more complete remote camps.

PKL’s purpose-designed, controlled-environment prefabrication facilities enable all mobile kitchen units to be built off-site and fully tested, with all systems optimised for the environment in which they’ll operate. Once complete they can be transported by land, sea or air anywhere in the world.

We have over 15 years of experience in successfully delivering rapid mobile kitchen units to remote international locations. Our teams have a clear and detailed understanding of the unique requirements of field kitchen, emergency kitchen or camp kitchen deployment, and are able to provide you with the most suitable options for your particular project.

For more information see http://www.pklmobilekitchens.co.uk/ or http://www.pkl.co.uk/