Introducing Team PKL! Part 2

In a follow up to yesterday's post, we are delighted to introduce you to the rest of the team who will be giving their insight as to some of the challenges and considerations involved in delivering both temporary and permanent commercial kitchen facilities.

They are also here to answer any questions you may have regarding the installation of temporary or permanent modular catering facilities or any thoughts you may have regarding the provision of commercial foodservice facilities.

Peter Schad – Commercial Director

Peter has been with PKL for over 20 years, and is responsible for all of our installations at major games as well as PKL’s Transworld Kitchens division. Peter has overseen large scale temporary kitchen installations at the last four Olympic Games, the last Winter Olympics, the last three Commonwealth Games, and the last two Asian Games, as well as recent overseas projects for a number of mining camps in Africa and two containerised facilities which have just been delivered for clients in Australia.

Peter's expertise lies in the design and delivery of large scale kitchen and dining facilities around the world, delivering multiple temporary catering facilities to large sites, and rapid deployment kitchen facilities for military, mining and humanitarian relief areas. 

 

Karen Rumsey - Project Consultant 

Karen has been with PKL for nine years, and during this time has worked in both our temporary and permanent kitchen divisions. Karen has worked in our KitchenPods division for the last two years and has delivered a large number of permanent modular kitchens and food kiosks to the education, business & industry and healthcare sectors.

Working in PKL's permanent division has meant that Karen has built up a wealth of experience in designing permanent kitchen facilities and helping clients through the overall planning process if it is required to get a kitchen on site. A number of Karen's projects have included innovative exterior finishes, to match a client's branding or their own design, or to ensure that they blend in seamlessly on site with other existing buildings.
 

John Steward – Long Term Hire Sales Manager

John has been with PKL for over seven years and is our Long Term Sales Manager for the hire of temporary kitchens. John is vastly experienced in delivering both large and smaller scale projects ranging from single unit facilities to large scale kitchen and dining complexes which go on hire for a number of years, while has also previously worked in our Event Hire division.

John is specialised in providing solutions to the healthcare sector, in particular nursing homes undergoing refurbishments and large scale temporary complexes for food manufacturers who are looking to expand their production output. John’s work in the care home sector has led him to develop the “Care Home Kitchen,” a temporary kitchen facility ideal for nursing homes who are undergoing a kitchen refurbishment.
 

Ian Selwood - KitchenPod Sales Manager 

Ian has worked at PKL for more than 12 years and within the foodservice industry for even longer! During his time at PKL, Ian has worked in our Long Term Hire and KitchenFM divisions, and has been sales manager for our permanent modular KitchenPods and Food Cubes for the last two years.

Ian's long career working within the foodservice industry means that he is extremely knowledgeable in all matters regarding commercial catering equipment, and is an expert when it comes to designing a kitchen facility that exactly meets the needs of the client. Ian has also spent time working on developing a number of procurement options for our permanent kitchens including our recently introduced lease hire offer.

We looking forward to bringing you contributions from all of our team over the next 12 months, providing you information on a wide range of issues involved within the supply of commercial foodservice facilities. Keep on checking back here for updates, and our first guest post next week!

Introducing Team PKL! Part 1

A new year and some exciting new changes to the PKL Blog. For 2013 we are pleased to welcome a number of our project consultants and directors who will be contributing some of their expertise over the next 12 months in a series of guest blog posts.

We will be giving an insight as to what it takes to deliver some of our more complex projects, some of the challenges involved, the range of both temporary and permanent projects that PKL Group is involved in supplying and some of the things you might want to consider if you are thinking of installing either a temporary or permanent kitchen facility. In addition, they are here to answer any questions you may have regarding the installation of temporary or permanent modular catering facilities or any thoughts you may have regarding the provision of commercial foodservice facilities.  

Over the next two posts, and in no particular order, we would like to introduce some of the faces who will be contributing to the PKL Blog in the coming weeks and months.

Lee Vines – Sales and Marketing Director

Lee has more than 13 years of experience working at PKL and is in charge of all sales and marketing activity within the UK. 

Lee has a large amount of experience having worked within the foodservice industry for the past 18 years and previously held the position of Sales and Marketing Director at ServEquip. Lee has worked on a great many projects during his time at PKL, covering the delivery of temporary kitchen facilities, large scale permanent facilities, the contract hire of catering equipment and KitchenPods.

 

 John Robinson – Project Consultant

John is one of PKL’s most experienced project consultants and has worked within the foodservice industry for over 20 years. 

John specialises in the long term hire of temporary kitchens and has delivered a wide range of large scale projects for PKL, in particular for the MOD, the Prison Service and the higher education sector, while has also developed his own design, the “hotel kitchen” for hotels and restaurants undergoing refurbishments that need to continue their foodservice provision during this time.

 Dan Robinson – Event Sales Executive

Dan is relatively new to PKL, being with us for a year and a half and is the youngest member of the team. 

Dan specialises in providing temporary catering solutions to the event market, which includes standalone catering equipment, temporary kitchen units and pop up restaurants. Dan has successfully delivered temporary kitchens to a wide range of customers within the events market, including UK festivals, religious organisations, sporting events, cookery TV programmes, Christmas parties and corporate clients and organisations hosting parties and balls.

 Ed Lyons – Business Development Executive

Ed is also a relatively new member of the PKL team, joining the company nearly two years ago. 

Ed has a vast knowledge of foodservice provision within the education sector, both in terms of the requirements of kitchen and servery facilities, and how schools can go about gaining funding to install them.  Ed has worked on a number of projects to deliver permanent modular KitchenPods and Food Cubes, to a number of schools throughout the UK.

 See part 2 of out meet the team blog, coming in the next couple of days, to see who else will be contributing to our blog over the next year.

PKL's Olympic Legacy Raises £8000 for Children's Food Trust

Our contract to supply temporary kitchens and catering equipment to London 2012 resulted in many ex-hire catering equipment items, some of which were used at the athletes' village and other Olympic venues, being made available over the past four months at huge discounts through Mid West Catering, a division of PKL which specialises in selling quality second-hand catering equipment. 

Our commitment to make a donation to the Children’s Food Trust for every used item sold has now resulted in a truly Olympic-sized windfall for the charity, which recently received its first donation from us in the form of a cheque of £8000.

The Children’s Food Trust is a national charity which exists to protect every child’s right to eat better and, so, to do better. Their work includes developing healthy school menus and cooking skills with children. PKL has worked with the Children’s Food Trust on a number of projects recently.

“We are very happy to support the Children’s Food Trust with this donation,” said Lee Vines, our sales and marketing director. “Their work, in encouraging more children, schools and parents around the country to have a positive experience with food is very important. We also hope that many schools benefited by being able to buy this ex-hire equipment at heavily discounted prices. School catering managers can now provide more for their students that they wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.”

With the ex-hire equipment selling so well, Lee was able to present a cheque for a total of £8000 to the Children’s Food Trust at their offices in Sheffield. 

Chief Executive, Judy Hargadon, said, "This donation will help us reach even more children - whether through our research programme, our work to improve food in early years settings and in schools, or our work to help even more children learn to cook."

PKL Offers Free Food Cube Trial to Schools

PKL and the Children's Food Trust has teamed up to
offer two Food Cubes on a free six week Trial

PKL and the Children's Food Trust have teamed up to offer two lucky schools a chance to win a six week trial of a Food Cube, a modular servery building designed to help relieve pressure on busy dining areas and promote stay on site policy.

We are giving two winning schools the opportunity to trial a Food Cube to see whether additional servery facilities help to manage large numbers of pupils staying on site for lunch, cut queues and even generate extra income through increased revenue from catering sales.

PKL has installed a number of Food Cubes throughout the UK this year, to schools looking to increase their meal provision facilities on site and we have proven examples where they have helped to significantly raise catering sales and increase school meal uptake.

For your school to be in with a chance of receiving a free unit on trial, follow this link to the Children's Food Trust Website or email your details to postbox@pkl.co.uk. Alternatively you can write to us at PKL Group (UK) ltd, Stella Way, Bishops Cleeve,  Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52 7DQ. Entries must be received by the January 31st 2013.

The offer is open to all schools throughout mainland Great Britain.

*Subject to trial terms and conditions

T&C's

Offer open only to schools in England, Scotland and Wales (excludes Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man).

PKL will provide a Food Cube and its transportation free of charge, providing the intended site is level and hard standing with easy access for an articulated lorry.

The school is liable for any mechanical, electrical or foundational work (if required) and the running costs for the unit during the trial period.

The school must provide all food, drink or other such goods intended to be sold from the Food Cube during the trial period and are not liable for any expenses incurred for goods which are not sold.

The school is responsible for providing all staff and payment to staff required to operate the Food Cube during the trial period

Entries must be received by post or email by midnight on 31.01.2013

The winning schools will be notified within 1 week of the closing date of the competition deadline.

The trial must start within six weeks of winning notification.

Competition winners will be contacted directly by PKL

Only one Food Cube is available per school

Winning schools must agree to partake in a case study, outlining the impact of the Food Cube and its effect on school meal take up once the trial has been completed.

School is liable for the upkeep of the Food Cube once on site, repair costs for any malicious damage caused to the Food Cube during the trial period and for meeting the relevant statutory responsibilities relating to provision of healthy school food.

PKL reserves the right to cancel this promotion or remove the unit from site at any point during the trial period.