Clear vision means future bright for commercial kitchen specialist

Since being founded in 2002 the company based in Heywood, Lancashire has grown significantly over several years, developing a comprehensive infrastructure and client base

Their team have an in-depth knowledge of varying styles of operation which gives them the edge when it comes to understanding how a commercial kitchen should look, feel and operate

Vision covers a wide range of market sectors including restaurants, hotels, schools, colleges, care homes, garden centres and arenas, with access to all the major equipment manufacturers in the industry as well as an extensive network of service and installation engineers across the country

They manage every step of the project, ranging from operator, architect and main contractor to the electrician plumber and shop fitter

Managing Director Jack Sharkey said: “Our key added value services are our consultation and advise, design, project management and after sales service

Vision have a clear policy operating in multiple market sectors with multiple clients The size varies from small companies to large national companies with projects ranging from £5k up to £7m and everything in between

Vision was recently shortlisted in five out of six categories at the recent Ceda Grand Prix awards, with a total of 10 shortlisted projects

This resulted in Vision being awarded the ultimate overall winner for the project at Manchester College, as well as winners of the over £500k category Vision also received two judge s commendations for Lu s Place in the projects under £100k category, and their work with HMS Host in the outstanding customer service category

The new Manchester College campus named City Campus Manchester, is located in the city centre, offering state-of-the-art facilities Their foodservice facilities include a modern coffee shop a 40-seat restaurant and bar run by students in an Industry Excellence Academy for Hospitality and Catering Vision worked closely with the Main Contractor, Willmott Dixon throughout the project

Vision’s brief for the project was for two training kitchens, food court kitchen, ground floor restaurant bar, student union bar, theatre bar and kitchen servery

As this was a large project with multiple areas it required an extensive amount of design work, and due to the scale of the project, there was a lot of coordination involved from both a design and project management perspective

Niall Wright, Director of Estate Redevelopment, at the Manchester College, said: “ The Manchester College have worked with Vision Commercial Kitchens over the past three years to deliver the refectory cafe and training kitchens for our new City Campus together with a new cafe facility for our Openshaw campus The design work for these facilities was developed in collaboration with our catering and curriculum teams and Vision were very adaptive and reactive to the teams requirements including developing a number of options for layouts and equipment that could be considered by the teams prior to sign-off The site installation works were completed to a very high standard and have been operational since September 2022 with great feedback from both staff and students

Vision have just completed work at the new Raffles hotel, located at The Old War Office in London and are currently working on the largest project to date which is due to be completed in early 2024

Jack said: “ Vision have worked tirelessly over the last 20 years to build an enviable reputation for the quality of our work project management and designs

“ The last five years have seen us really invest in our design capabilities and software, and we are one of the few companies in our sector that can operate to BIM Level 2

“Innovation is something that is inherent within the business and is encouraged in all areas of the business to ensure we ’ re at the forefront of our industry ”

Vision have the capability to operate both nationally and internationally, and have undertaken design and projects in Europe, the Middle East, Hong Kong and the Caribbean

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They have recently increased their warehouse capacity at their Heywood Head Office, and have staff based throughout the country to serve their nationwide customers

Vision currently employ 48 staff across sales consultancy, design, project management, sales support, after sales support, marketing and admin

Jack said: “Staff training is an integral ethos within the business and is something that we constantly invest in across all areas of the business At the end of the day, knowledgeable and motivated staff will enjoy their work and this comes across to the customer It’s also important to get the work-life balance right that goes a long way to help with staff retention ”

Quality is important to Vision in all things Vision were early adopters of ISO standards and they invested heavily in IT infrastructure to ensure they had the capability to expand the business They became members of the industry body ceda (Catering Equipment Distributors Association) in 2005 Within five years they broke the £5m turnover threshold and are now set to break the £20m mark this year

In terms of the future, Jack said: “Our current focus on expansion is within our service offering which we are looking to grow over the next two to three years As well as continuing to develop and enhance our projects and capital replacement offering

In say five years time we would like to see it still at the forefront of our industry and still leading the way in our design and project management capabilities Of course, we do have plans for growth, as mentioned previously in our service projects and capital equipment offering

“ The business is probably in better shape than it’s ever been, we managed to retain all of our staff and have subsequently since the pandemic recruited additional staff to cope with the increased levels of business that we seem to be attracting

Our 2022 returns have seen a significant improvement over our pre-pandemic results which is testament to this strategy and the staff Our 2023 forecast and beyond are extremely strong and encouraging www.visionck.co.uk