A Winter’s tale Q&A

David Winter of NCH Developments Ltd has decades of experience in the foodservice industry, making him the perfect choice as new vice-chair of the British Sandwich & Food to Go Association.

What’s your career background?

I’ve worked in foodservice since finishing hotel school, obtaining the Hotel and Catering Institutional Management Association (HCIMA) qualification, across most foodservice channels. Starting as a graduate trainee with one of the blue-chip caterers, I had a choice – continue, within the corporate ‘machine’, becoming an entrepreneur or founder. Or become a specialist, developing and exploiting the aspects of the business you’re good at and applying it within other organisations, which is my path.

The bulk of my career has been spent in development consultancy, where you’re engaged with a client or their teams, focused on improvement or change. A good example was for DHL with British Airways some years ago, where I acted as their culinary lead for 18 months – and the same with what was Virgin Trains on the West Coast Main Line, with the onboard hospitality service. These projects tend to move from advisory, development and conceptual, to an implementation or support phase, and then moving on. Basically, building a sustainable solution and handing over.

Has food to go been integral?

Yes, FTG or chilled packaged food is a major part of modern foodservice, especially in travel catering, from buy onboard to the first class offer, business or lounges for rail or aviation. Chilled (or chilled to be reheated) food forms a significant aspect. I’ve done a lot of work with the customer, as well as the producer, so I operate between the two.

The British Sandwich and Food to Go Association (BSA) is something of an institution. How long have you known about it?

I’ve been aware for a long time. I’ve been going to the dinners, meetings and presentations probably for the past 20 years! Again, that goes back a while to when I had a major project with Nestlé, where we facilitated a Café Nescafé franchise business, heavily dependent on FTG – we were delivering the brand to a number of larger operators, requiring national supply, so we got involved with a couple of sandwich companies. Those business are no longer operating independently, showing the volatile nature of FTG in the past ten years.

What trends are you witnessing?

There has been a significant range development within sandwich companies, who are evolving FTG. You have all sorts of different bread carriers, alongside a whole range of other chilled products – from salads to overnight oats, yoghurt pots and breakfast pots. Also, hot meals that have been cold assembled to be regenerated, including things like macaroni cheese or Teriyaki noodles. Also, an increased focus on plantbased and free-from ranges. If you go on the high street and look at Caffè Nero or Pret A Manger, that’s a pretty good shorthand for what FTG customers expect their sandwich companies to provide. Obviously different companies do different levels of that, but everything in the chilled cabinet starts to make sense. You’ve effectively got chilled deliveries maybe six or seven days a week, so you’ve a complete category in that area, appealing to all sorts of different channels: education, healthcare, leisure and tourism, events, exhibitions, sports stadia and travel. FTG is everywhere from Wimbledon to Deloitte corporate offices, to your local hospital, school, university and everywhere else.

It’s been a tough time for the sector. In your experience, how are businesses responding?

Most are focused on key elements such as efficiency of production, logistics and range management. You find organisations adapt or create niches for themselves where they’re more comfortable – where they can establish consistent volume and value in the way they operate, maybe with a specialism or focus. That could be around marketing, product development, packaging, etc. Effectively, the food is the easy bit. It’s normally the packaging, shelf life and logistics that fit the channel or the sector which are the challenge – and here is where the complexities lie. Compare FTG to most other suppliers to foodservice and the immediacy of the supply chain is so different. Chilled food and put together to deliver the solution for the client. ingredients are short life before you start to produce – and demand can vary significantly. As the producer, you have a short window between order production and delivery of the product; the customer is trying to maximise range and availability and minimise waste; while the consumer is demanding greater choice.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

I would probably use the overworked phrase that ‘every day is different’. I will deal with a variety of organisations in one day – I could be talking to a customer, or contractor (rail or aviation, maybe a final mile provider who loads the product onto the transport), or maybe a thirdparty manufacturer of ‘hot meals’, or ready meals, for a client. It is a mosaic

My role today is serendipitous. When I started off with classic hotel school training, I would have been expected to go into management in contract catering or hotels, on a typical career path. The reality is that I’ve created a niche for myself, where what I do is a combination of project management and product development, combined with a level of commercial agility to engage and coordinate all parties. I talk about this idea of the food being the easy bit – it’s all about getting it to the customer, how and when they want it. My view of consultancy is that it’s a mixture of quiet diplomacy and communication in the background, adding value to your client and their business.

How do you see your role as BSA vice-chair?

What I’m interested in is the opportunity to better understand the engagement we can have with industry-wide challenges, government and the many bodies involved, especially around sustainability. Plus, organisations sitting outside that arena, like the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), and other sustainability actors. I’m looking to understand more and be active in that area.

What’s your perspective on the FTG sector now?

Reacting to customer variations in demand, new workplace practices, their own labour challenges, combined with the impacts of the markets and war in Ukraine.

Covid-19 was a huge catalyst for change. While that’s an obvious statement, what I mean is that you’ve seen accelerated change. Cashless payment is a prime example. It would have taken five or ten years to get to its current stage, yet a lot of operators are now cashless. Some of the fallout has been positive, whether that’s delivery services or in-seat and table app ordering.

A downside is the significant change to the out-of-home sector, with the perceived shift in working practices. Our market is evolutionary, but Covid has meant things have happened faster. That’s harder for large mature organisations to cope with, so we see McDonalds in the US introducing a huge management restructure. Larger organisations find it more difficult to cope with massive change. I recall the financial crash in 2008, and you have to take the view there is going to be a longer climb out of this situation. People say things could be back to normal in 12/18 months – but that’s a ‘new normal’. Moving forward could be over three or four years. Stronger organisations will adapt and modify, including acquisition and merger, which we’ve seen already. The smaller, more agile ones starting from scratch, or those moving quicker than larger groups, will thrive. It’s just a cycle. It’s not hospitality as we knew it; it’s an evolution.