Comment/Opinion

Catering is a valuable contributor to football club revenue, but potential growth is being stymied by draconian alcohol licensing rules and the stadia sector’s failure to adapt to changing consumer trends, says The Lindley Group’s CEO Adam Elliott. The rules on the sale and consumption of alcohol at football matches are ludicrous and often illogical. They are as hit and miss as the offside rule, they change more frequently and there are any number of interpretations and anomalies that vary from ground to ground and match to match.

Technology and the catering sector have so far been reluctant bed fellows, especially when you look at the way the retail sector has embraced it to introduce efficiencies and eradicate human error. But that situation is changing fast, according to Ed Bevan of epsys The arrival of e-procurement and the ability to utilise the web as a universal communication tool is having a real impact on buying practices in the cost sector.