Gabby's Work Experience - Cleeve School Case Study

After an exciting and informative week of work experience, working within the marketing team, Friday has arrived and I am able to share the Food Cube case study I’ve produced with some help!!

Having a Food Cube at Cleeve School's sixth form where I attend, it seemed a perfect opportunity to see Graphic Designer Andy in action with the camera and to see how Marketing Executive Caz works her magic with the masses of information collected and crafts it into small condensed paragraphs for the case study.

Experiencing the Food Cube myself for a hot drink on a regular basis, I was aware of the benefits it has to offer our sixth form, although this wasn’t enough information to produce a case study with. So Andy and I went on a visit to Cleeve School, where I was classed as a visitor, to interview both my peers, a member of the catering team and my teacher.

Once we arrived and Andy had snapped away, the interview with the Acting Assistant Head of Sixth Form began, during which the Food Cube was seen in action with two students purchasing a hot drink. After I had carried out all three interviews, and made over a page of notes on the benefits and uses of the Cube, it was back to the office to use this information. 

Constructing the text for the case study was a task I had underestimated - trying to include all the points made by those I had interviewed whilst keeping it short and punchy wasn’t as easy as it appeared. However with assistance from the expert herself, Cleeve School’s Food Cube Case Study was successfully completed!

Here's the finished article...

Cleeve School's Food Cube Case Study

Cleeve School, a large secondary school with busy sixth form, wanted a solution to encourage sixth form students to remain on site during their free periods. They decided to install a PKL Food Cube directly outside the sixth form centre, and created an outdoor dining area with the addition of a canopy and tables.

The Cube has proven to be hugely popular within the sixth form, especially as it is an exclusive outlet not available to the rest of the school community. It offers menu items not available in the main canteen, such as hot drinks, and is open throughout the day rather than just at lunch and break times.

An added bonus of the Cube, manned by Julie from the catering team, is that the sixth formers have been able to build a great relationship with her. This has not only increased the Cube’s popularity, but has also made students more confident in putting forward their own menu suggestions and ideas.

 “The students really enjoy having the Food Cube and being able to come and use it on a regular basis throughout the day. The sixth form students really like the privilege of having it to use for themselves, and we have seen an improvement in students staying on site. I would definitely recommend it.” – Emma Smith, Acting Assistant Head of Sixth Form

For more information on PKL Food Cubes, click here.

Celebrating 25 Years of PKL

This month, we are celebrating PKL’s 25 year anniversary. Over the last 25 years, we’ve undertaken 10,000 temporary kitchen hires across multiple sectors throughout the UK and around the world, and have grown to become the UK’s leading provider of outsourced catering infrastructure solutions.

Over time, the business has expanded to employ 85 people, and we now have a management and senior operations team with a collective experience of well over 100 years of working for the company, many of whom have been with us since the early days. Operating from our purpose-built head office and warehouse facility, we own 900 portable kitchen units and over 10,000 items of catering equipment which are hired to a variety of customers during kitchen refurbishments, events or during kitchen emergencies.

Some of our notable installations over the last 25 years have included large scale kitchen and dining facilities for numerous major sporting events around the world, facilities for the military in the middle east, and installations at prestigious UK sites including Buckingham Palace, Glastonbury Festival and a number of Oxford and Cambridge colleges.

The PKL Quay over time. The first image was taken 10+ years ago, the second was taken today.

In the last few years, we’ve used our experience from providing temporary commercial kitchens to move into the supply of permanent modular kitchen buildings, via our KitchenPod and Food Cube products. This has resulted in local installations at Beaufort Co-operative Academy in Gloucester and Cleeve School in Cheltenham, as well as a number of projects around the country, including supplying 100 KitchenPods to schools in Northamptonshire. In addition to these products, our recently developed modular camp kitchen and dining solutions have been supplied to a number of mining and exploration sites in Africa.

Two of our favourite photos from the PKL archives.

One of our latest developments has been the launch of KitchenFM for Schools, which is a new product designed specifically for the education sector. Following the announcement of the School Food Plan, we developed KitchenFM for Schools with support from the Children’s Food Trust. This new contract hire solution is aimed at schools looking to expand or refurbish their existing kitchens so that they can introduce or increase their school meal provision.

Over the past 25 years we have helped a large number of establishments to implement changes to their catering and dining infrastructure. We have developed a number of innovative catering solutions which have played a significant role in shaping the future of the UK’s education, health and leisure sectors, as well as ensuring that we remain the UK’s leading supplier of temporary catering infrastructure.

Our latest staff picture and a recent office photo.

We are very proud of our achievements to date and will continue to build on our expertise and knowledge. As we look to the future, we look forward to maintaining PKL’s position as a major kitchen infrastructure solutions provider on an international scale. We will also continue to build on our strong reputation for innovation, through our work on developing new and exciting solutions for the fast moving sectors in which we operate. Here’s to the next 25 years!