Charlton House (CH&Co)
Charlton House (now CH&Co) were the UK’s 4th largest contract caterer with sales of £100M. They hold the Royal Warrant and have multiple brands servicing different sectors of the UK hospitality industry.
Challenge
Charlton House were frustrated with continually losing out in sales tenders, coming second place to smaller niche players. They were a large catering company that had multiple areas of expertise but were seen by clients as at times too big and not specialist enough. Clients were moving more towards the smaller, more pliable caterers that they felt would be more responsive to their needs and goals.
Activation
Charlton House undertook a re-branding exercise to support their growth ambitions. With no marketing expertise at board level, I was brought in by the CEO to be the voice of marketing and PR as a de facto Marketing Director. I was considered a trusted adviser, with contacts and experience in commercial and retail catering and who knew Charlton House well from many years of working for them.
Over a year, I helped dissect the business, interviewing all the major stakeholders at director level including the Chairman and Managing Director. I worked with design agencies on briefing, presentation and then execution as together we re-launched the company under the CH&Co banner with 5 new brands, each with their own specialist market sector. I was retained to work with all the brands, was part of the interview panel to bring on a Marketing Director for the first time in the company’s history and continued to work on numerous projects for the company such as sales tenders - the most prestigious being winning the £60M 5 year Historic Royal Palaces catering contract (Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace). I was retained with CH&Co over an 8 year period.
The company has continued to grow through mergers and increased sales and is now valued at £265M.