Nestled in a village in Gloucestershire lies one of Creed Foodservice’s ‘secret weapons’; the Barn, one of the many versatile spaces they have invested in to host their customers.
Surrounded by green space, the Barn has been renovated and is complete with all the electrical connectivity needed to host live food events, run a working kitchen and demo area, together with a coffee machine and chilled food display units.
Adjacent to the Barn is the lodge, a rustic meeting space with large windows all around, tables, chairs and audio-visual equipment for presentations, that together provide a ‘business meeting’ experience like no other. In addition, there is also the Food Innovation Centre (a development kitchen) and The Hub (a mock-up coffee shop venue), located in Cheltenham and High Wycombe.
These spaces – each unique but all incredibly well thought out - provide welcome relief from formal, office meeting places and enable Creed to welcome their customers for in-depth development sessions with their chefs, category experts and insights specialists. This is just one of the ways the wholesaler has powered its way to an ever-growing customer base, which is currently at 3,500, and the warmth and dedication to all customers is clear to see.
On the day I visited in July – which turned out to be the hottest day of the year – the lodge’s ice-filled tubs of drinks, together with the informal break-out areas created by scattering rugs in the shade of nearby trees, both proved extremely popular.
The visitors that day were the team from longstanding client Catering Management Consultants (CMC), the education catering consultancy that helps more than 100 schools and academies to operate their own in-house meals services.
Most of its individual consultants work from home around the country and had not seen each other for two years due to lockdown. They decided to combine a team get-together with a chance to meet their Creed colleagues – the ideal mix of business with pleasure.
The running order for the day included an informal introduction to Creed’s new Kitchen ‘72 street food inspired school catering concept, created by the food development team together with Celebrity MasterChef winner, England rugby World Cup star and Non-Executive Director at Creed, Phil Vickery. At the time it was still being trialled at only a few schools.
It passed the CMC taste test with flying colours, its members agreeing the accompanying bold posters, packaging and point-of-sale material provided a valuable package for schools wanting to match the quality and appeal of a High Street brand.
A presentation on sustainability highlighted Creed’s efforts towards being carbon neutral by 2025 and gave the CMC consultants the chance to emphasise how this also helped their schools to carry the benefits and accreditations into their own sustainability stories.
There was an introduction to new products on the market that Creed had sourced, including the Moving Mountains plant-based range made from mushroom and soya, Soreen’s new chocolate malt loaf and the Nix & Kix Cucumber and Mint soft drink.
CMC founder Gary Stewart says: “We choose to work with Creed as they are a family-owned company with a similar outlook and we feel a synergy with them. We have a good working relationship with all the Creed team especially our account manager Nicola Hepworth.”
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Creed, which has since grown from a two-person family business to a 300-strong team providing nationwide coverage through distribution centres in Cheltenham, Ilkeston and High Wycombe.
That helps it offer clients like CMC more than 6,000 product lines sourced from over 450 suppliers. It may now be a leading independent delivered wholesale food supplier, but it has retained that family feel, with Chris Creed, the son of the founder Terry, now the company’s current chief executive.
Such continuity gives Creed the ability to build business relationships over the long-term and is undoubtedly one of the reasons why clients such as CMC hold them in such high regard as a key supplier.
And it also goes some way towards explaining the industry awards and recognition Creed has picked up along the way, including Foodservice Wholesaler of the Year 2021, and among the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2020.