Modular KitchenPods help Northamptonshire’s schools

PKL has supplied a total of 32 KitchenPod pre-fabricated kitchen buildings to schools in Northamptonshire as part of the County Council’s Hot School Meals programme, designed to raise the nutritional quality of school meals.

Northamptonshire County Council has embarked on a broad-ranging programme to equip 62 primary schools with kitchen facilities, using a mix of refurbishment of existing facilities, new build and PKL’s KitchenPods. The latter have proved particularly cost-effective in situations where there is no space in the existing school buildings to site a kitchen.

Working closely with the County Council, PKL developed three sizes of kitchen, capable of providing between 70 and 150 hot meals per day. Each is sized to have extra capacity to account for anticipated increases in pupil numbers. Where the KitchenPods could not be sited very close to existing buildings, PKL has also supplied regeneration trollies to facilitate delivery of the food to the servery and dining areas.

The County Council’s Martin Hewins, who has been managing the Hot School Meals programme, commented: “We have had a very good service from PKL and they have been very responsive to our needs. The new kitchens have also been well received by the staff.”

PKL’s KitchenPods are available in a number of different designs with a wide choice of equipment layouts to suit each school’s requirements, ranging from regeneration of pre-prepared meals to hot production of school meals. They can also be supplied in a range of finishes to help them blend with existing buildings.

The KitchenPod is just one of a range of modular kitchen building solutions available from PKL Group. Constructed offsite, PKL’s permanent modular kitchens can be built to end user specifications including size, layout, exterior finish and catering and dining equipment, and provide permanent solutions for both small and large scale catering requirements.

Watch a video of a KitchenPod installation by clicking here.

Kitchen solutions when budgets are cut

As capital budgets are squeezed ever harder there are strong signs that many organisations are turning to outsourced and contract hire solutions that can be met from revenue budgets, particularly within the healthcare and education sectors.

There are many organisations, particularly in the public sector, where there is a desperate need to upgrade catering equipment or kitchen buildings but capital funds simply aren’t available.  The long-term hire of catering equipment, or even an entire new kitchen building, is a real capital-free alternative because the cost is met through a monthly fee. In addition, the service provider assumes the financial risk relating to the equipment.

PKL offers a wide choice of hire options, ranging from the ability to specify a complete kitchen equipment estate with inclusive service and maintenance, to permanent modular kitchen buildings that can be designed and configured to end user choice.

Using the contract hire option to procure new kitchen buildings or to replace or upgrade a current kitchen estate provides a viable alternative to capital purchase and is particularly relevant during the current squeeze on funding. In addition, outsourcing all service and maintenance means that there will be no additional costs once a kitchen is in place.

It seems clear that we will see even tighter restrictions placed on capital budgets over the next few years but many organisations can’t wait that long to upgrade their kitchens.  PKL are happy to work with any of these bodies or the FM companies or caterers contracted with them, to evaluate their needs, identify the best solution and explore the options that are open to them.

More information regarding the contract hire of catering equipment or permanent modular buildings can be found by clicking on the links below:

Contract hire

Permanent modular kitchen hire

Pop-up kitchen for pop-up restaurant

Studio East Dining. Photo courtesy of Luke Hayes

PKL has supplied a temporary kitchen for Westfield Stratford City’s “Studio East Dining Pavilion” - the innovative temporary ‘pop up’ restaurant by Westfield in collaboration with Bistrotheque and Carmody Groarke.

The restaurant was erected on the roof of the 35m high Westfield Stratford City development, currently being constructed in East London. The restaurant was open for just three weeks, feeding around 2,000 people while treating them to breathtaking views across London.

Studio East Dining was the brainchild of Westfield, working in conjunction with Bistrotheque, who initiated the pop-up restaurant trend. The restaurant launched Westfield’s Studio East initiative which is designed to harness young, creative talent by providing commissions across art, fashion, product design and environment for the Westfield Stratford City project.

Designed by architects Carmody Groarke, the restaurant was made from scaffolding and boards borrowed from the site and covered in recyclable plastic sheeting, in keeping with its setting. PKL’s kitchen facilities - comprising a ‘mini-kitchen’, preparation kitchen and dishwashing area - were pre-fabricated off-site and delivered to site in portable buildings, reinforcing the ‘construction site feel’ of the project. The kitchens were designed to Bistrotheque’s strict specification.

All of the materials will now be returned to site. The 1.9m square feet Westfield Stratford City will be the largest urban shopping centre in Europe and will form the prestigious gateway to London’s Olympic Park.

PKL kitchen maintains dining for care home residents

A temporary kitchen facility from PKL has enabled Castle View care home in Salisbury to maintain a high standard of catering for its residents during a major refurbishment project. PKL worked with the home’s management team to ensure the temporary kitchen specification would enable ‘business as usual’.

Operated by Wessex Care, Castle View has 26 residents and a minimum of eight staff at any time. Many of the residents require high-dependency nursing with specialist dietary requirements, so this had an impact on the equipment specified for the temporary kitchen.

“There were some major challenges in siting the temporary kitchen and PKL managed the whole project extremely well. They also gave our kitchen staff a very clear introduction to the equipment so the kitchen as up and running very quickly. We’ve never used a temporary kitchen before but I would certainly do it again because it makes the whole process much easier,” recalled Wessex Care's Matthew Airey.

More information regarding our range of solutions for the healthcare sector can be found by visiting the page below:
www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/ind_healthcare.asp

Breaking through the budgetary restrictions

As capital budgets are squeezed ever harder there are strong signs that many organisations are turning to outsourced and contract hire solutions that can be met from revenue budgets. So says PKL, the UK’s leading supplier of temporary kitchens and catering equipment for hire.

“There are many organisations, particularly in the public sector, where there is a desperate need to upgrade catering equipment or kitchen buildings but capital funds simply aren’t available,” notes PKL’s Lee Vines. “The long term hire of catering equipment, or even an entire new kitchen building, is a real capital-free alternative because the cost is met through a monthly fee. And the service provider assumes the financial risk relating to the equipment,” he adds.

PKL offers a wide choice of hire options, ranging from the ability to specify a complete kitchen equipment estate with inclusive service and maintenance, to permanent modular kitchen buildings that can be designed and configured to end user choice.

Using the contract hire option to procure new kitchen buildings or to replace or upgrade a current kitchen estate provides a viable alternative to capital purchase and is particularly relevant during the current squeeze on funding. In addition, outsourcing all service and maintenance means that there will be no additional costs once a kitchen is in place.

“It seems clear that we will see even tighter restrictions placed on capital budgets over the next few years but many organisations can’t wait that long to upgrade their kitchens,” Lee Vines adds. “We are happy to work with any of these bodies to evaluate their needs, identify the best solution and explore the options that are open to them,” he concludes.

More information regarding the contract hire of catering equipment or permanent modular buildings can be found by clicking on the links below:

Contract hire

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

Permanent modular kitchen hire

www.pkl.co.uk/foodservices/kitchen-pods.asp

If you would like to discuss any hire or rental options with PKL, you can do so by either by phoning 0845 840 42 42 or emailing postbox@pkl.co.uk