Prime Burger & The Fine Food Co: Building Foundations for Success

The Problem

The business had two divisions, a chain of restaurants and onsite event catering at festivals. Communication and the development of people was fragmented across different sites. While they had an area manager providing some on-site coaching, there was a need for more consistent training and improved processes to ensure a uniform approach to service, operations, and people management.

What We Did

T4P were engaged to design and deliver a centralised Management Foundations training programme for all managers from the restaurant and catering divisions. The training sessions were conducted onsite, bringing all the participants together and allowing them to be fully focused and engaged.

David’s industry experience and passion for hospitality were critical factors in delivering effective training. His authority and expertise in the field resonated with the participants, and he structured the sessions in a lively and interactive manner, often using half-day formats to avoid information overload.

David also facilitated some difficult conversations within the leadership team. This helped to defuse intense emotions, support objective understanding of the issues and resolve the problems professionally.

The Result

The T4P training programme yielded several positive outcomes:

Better support and collaboration:  The customised training programme promoted a consistent approach to service procedures, operations, and people management across all sites.  By bringing managers together from different locations, the training facilitated team bonding and knowledge-sharing, leading to better support and collaboration among the managers.

People felt valued: The training empowered managers to cascade the learnings and best practices to their supervisors and frontline staff, creating a ripple effect throughout the organisation. People and managers felt valued and invested in, contributing to a change in atmosphere and attitude within the team. This led to reducing employee turnover to below the sector average.

Leadership focus: By resolving some key issues the leadership team were able to focus on streamlining the business. This included developing its people, processes and profitability. It also included significant restructuring that was smoothly implemented because leaders and managers had developed their communication and feedback skills during the programme.

Positive financial impact: The learning and development programme had a direct positive impact on the performance, sustainable growth and financial successful of the business. The business was eventually sold to a large USA Hospitality business, making a handsome return for its owners and investors.

“David’s passion and authority were important to me. He knew what he was talking about and brought valuable industry experience to our training sessions.”

“The structured, central training sessions with David paid real dividends. Our team was focused and engaged, and the sessions brought everyone closer together.”

“David’s sessions not only improved leadership skills but also created a more unified team. We became a nicer, better place to work, which contributed to our success and helped us to keep people for longer than the average in the industry.”

Robert Tame, Founding Director