Twice a year we gather together our #bmFamily💜💚 team members.  Ian Mitchell and myself love to go, and really enjoy the experience, the #bmFamily💜💚 culture, what it stands for and, as importantly, seeing firsthand the safe hands BM is in now with its leadership team.

It’s all about our People and outstanding Food

This event is of course all about people and food.

We know the credit crunch is an issue for our customers so we are looking at innovative ways to provide fabulous fresh food at great value, so the chef team has came up with some great ideas, which were shared and some great tasters.  We also looked at new coffee shop offers to make sure that ideas are kept fresh and relevant.

We also heard about the great template of environmental, social, and corporate governance, ESG, that WSH, our parent company is undertaking. There is a strong commitment and we are looking forward to this underpinning what we do. For us at BM it’s always been about measurable achievements and making an impact especially in sustainability.

Finally, we know our greatest asset is the #bmFamily💜💚 and we looked at recruitment and innovative ways to make sure that BM remains the first choice. We know our reputation of support, respect and opportunities is what attracts the best.  Catering is a very incestuous business, where everyone knows everyone and what really goes on – so we are always true to our values and we make BM a place that many team members return to and are welcomed back with open arms.

William Baxter

Poignantly after saying to Ian how proud we are of our team, on that evening I was informed that William Baxter, a close friend and mentor of mine, had passed away. I remember walking with him on a family trip and we were nearly at the end, I was discussing forming a business with Ian, he said forcefully – ‘You’ve just got to get in with it!’, so I decided there and then we would – sometimes you can overthink things!

William inspired a few of the old Sutcliffians (those that worked for Sutcliffe) to follow his path and start a company, it’s such a great legacy to leave! Having spent the evening at our AGM I was able to reflect that probably without his inspiration, example and push, none of us would be standing there together that night!

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My earliest food memories are of my mum’s baking; coconut pyramid cakes were my favourite.

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