Activities
BaxterStorey was formed in late 2004 by the merger of BaxterSmith and Wilson Storey Halliday to become the UK's fifth largest contract caterer and the largest privately-owned player. It consolidated its position as the leading independent operator in late 2007 with the acquisition of Holroyd Howe.
The group’s main focus is on the business and industry sector, providing staff restaurants, cafés and deli bars, fine dining and hospitality services, private dining and partners luncheon rooms.
Its parent company, WSH, also owns a small stable of niche food service companies that include education and healthcare caterer Cater Link, Portico, and deli retailer and concessions operator Benugo.
Timeline
- 1985: Linda and George Halliday found Halliday Catering Services. By the time of its acquisition in 2001, it has become the UK’s largest independent caterer.
- May 2000: William Baxter sets up BaxterSmith with Mike Smith, the former managing director at Baxter & Platts which Baxter co-founded in 1987 and sold to his former employer Granada in 1997.
- September 2000: Alastair Storey, the former managing director of Granada Food Services, sets up Wilson Storey with his former finance director Keith Wilson. It quickly forges a deal with Groupe Le Duff of France to roll out its La Brioche Dorée coffee shops in the UK.
- May 2001: Wilson Storey forges an alliance with £7m-turnover Houston & Church, a Berkshire-based caterer.
- December 2001: Wilson Storey buys Wokingham-based Halliday Catering Services, which adds 90 contracts, 1,000 staff and an annual turnover of £23m to the pot. The newly-named Wilson Storey Halliday, becomes the UK’s largest independent contract caterer.
- 2004: Wilson Storey Halliday buys £10m-turnover Cater Link in Kent for between £3m and £4m, gaining a strong foothold in the education and healthcare markets. In November, it merges with BaxterSmith to become BaxterStorey. BaxterSmith Scotland, which was set up in 2002, is sold to managing director Alan Aitken before the merger.
- January 2005: The new £85m-turnover BaxterStorey begins trading.
- January 2006: The group reveals that it has added 30 new contracts worth £16m during its first full year of trading.
- December 2007: BaxterStorey buys Holroyd Howe, the contract caterer founded in August 1997 by Rick Holroyd and Nick Howe to target the B&I and education markets. Holroyd and Howe remain with Holroyd Howe, which starts to trade as BaxterStorey from the New Year. The acquisition creates a group with a combined turnover of £178m (£133m from BaxterStorey and £45m from Holroyd Howe).
- December 2007: BaxterStorey’s parent company, WSH, buys deli retailer Benugo, which has a £13m turnover and 350 staff. Benugo operates five high street retail units, along with concessions in offices and leading venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum. Founders Ben and Hugo Warner stay on to head up the brand.
Financial snapshot
Figures for 2006
Turnover: £116.59m (2005: £102m)
Operating profit: £6.326 (2005: £5.045m)
By the end of 2007, BaxterStorey had a turnover of £133m, before the addition of £45m from the acquisition of Holroyd Howe.
Operating data
Figures for 2006
Number of accounts (net): 2006: 583 (2005: 531)
Number of employees: 2,881 (2005: 2,775)
By December 2007, the group employed more than 4,450 staff and had more than 279 clients across the country.
BaxterStorey is the main trading unit specialising in the business and industry sector.
Cater Link remains as a small specialist unit with contracts in the education and healthcare sectors.
Benugo operates high street retail units across London, along with concessions in offices and at leading venues such as the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The group also runs two La Brioche Dorée coffee shops at Heathrow’s terminals 2 and 3.
Strategy
"Holroyd Howe represents a great fit with our business. Their operating ethos closely matches ours making it a natural step for the enlarged business to continue focusing on our signature fresh food, great service, great people approach.
Importantly we now have greater scale and a deeper footprint across the UK. This provides us with an excellent platform to build future growth and to deliver our high quality services throughout the length and breadth of the nation."
Source: Chief executive Alastair Storey, 17 December 2007
“Together our management and operating teams are a formidable unit housing the sector’s most experienced executives and outstanding talent. The combined force of our technical, commercial, culinary and service flair, presents a tremendous opportunity for an independent business to have the operational ability of a multinational, whilst providing our clients with a service that is led personally by the company’s owners.”
Source: Rick Holroyd, joint managing director, Holroyd Howe, 17 December 2007
Chief executive
Alastair Storey
Key directors
Deputy chief executive: William Baxter
Managing director: Mike Smith
Managing director: Noel Mahony
Managing director: John Bennett
Commercial director: Keith Wilson
HR director: Linda Halliday
Sales director: Simon Esner
Director: Rick Holroyd
Director: Nick Howe
Benugo directors: Ben and Hugo Warner
The Waterfront
300 Thames Valley Drive
Reading
Berkshire
RG6 1PT
Tel: 0118 935 6700
Fax: 0118 935 6701
E-mail:
Website: http://www.baxterstorey.com
BaxterStorey was formed from the merger of two highly-successful independent contract caterers – the £75m-a-year turnover Wilson Storey Halliday and the £30m-a-year BaxterSmith. The management team at the enlarged group comprises six of the sector’s most experienced senior executives with more than 100 years of experience between them and countless awards.
It is headed by chief executive Alastair Storey, who looks after strategic development, and deputy chief executive William Baxter, who runs the marketing and sales side of the business.
BaxterStorey’s new status as the UK’s fifth largest caterer and its largest independent player put it in a unique position between the big corporates and the smaller operators. “We can provide the best of both worlds – the resources of a big company yet the nimbleness of a small one,” Baxter explained at the time of the merger.
Chefs across the new group continued to benefit from a tie-up Wilson Storey Halliday forged in early 2003 with Michelin-starred chef John Campbell at the Vineyard at Stockcross hotel in Berkshire. The caterer found its chefs could “think smarter” and be more innovative after training alongside Campbell’s crew in the Vineyard kitchens.
In 2007, the group consolidated its role as the UK's leading independent player with the acquisition of Holroyd Howe.
