David Foad: How did you start in the catering industry?
Andrew Etherington: I left Beckenham Grammar School in 1966 with two O Levels and didn’t know what I wanted to do. I worked for a shipping firm and part-time at a pub. I really liked the pub, meeting people and providing a service. Then I saw an ad in the Daily Express from the director of THF Hotels, got an interview and was awarded a management trainee position at Brown’s Hotel on £9 a week live-in. In those days, many people went into employment without qualifications, based on their potential to learn and their personality. It was great opportunity for me to learn the ropes.
Is that still a valid way into catering?
It’s a point that draws in a number of issues around things like training and continuous personal development as we seek to find ways to bring young people into the industry. If the question is rephrased as, ‘What’s more important, qualifications or people skills?’, then I think my answer is that both vocational and academic routes into the industry are equally valid.
How did the training at Brown’s go?
After a four-year programme at Brown’s, I was the assistant banqueting manager but then moved to the Burford Bridge Hotel as banqueting manager. After 18 months, my first daughter was born, and I quickly found that families and working in hotels don’t really go together, so I moved to Bateman Catering at Fleet as the assistant regional personnel and training manager. That was a move that taught me about people management and development, plus how to handle multisite operations.
What else did you learn?
I had always had a hankering to open my own delicatessen and then moved on to do this in Liss in Hampshire. It was in the days before supermarkets had started to open their own deli counters, but the place burnt down, my marriage split, and I went back to what I knew, joining Fleming’s Hotel in Half Moon Street in London in 1986.
The owner of this hotel then bought Down Hall Country House Hotel, one of the first of its type, and two years later I was asked to become general manager of the place. It later went on to become well known as the venue for the wedding of Big Brother contestant Jade Goody in 2009 just weeks before she died. It was a fabulous venue for weddings. For me, it was back to my roots – service and hospitality.
What happened next?
Sue, now my wife of 26 years, was the sales manager there, and to keep work and my relationship separate, I moved on and into the city in 1991, working for Sutcliffe Catering during the ‘big bang’ of deregulation. I was general manager of the Salomon Brothers site, which had the largest trading floor in Europe and prided itself on its corporate hospitality. I was working with a budget of £1.5 million, and that was nearly 25 years ago. It was a time of excitement and great expansion, and it was the first time I was introduced to spreadsheets on a computer.
How did your interest in the consultancy side of the business start?
At this point, I was headhunted by BP in London to become its catering project manager. The in-house catering operation served 6,000 meals a day that were prepared in a cook-chill central production unit based out in Harlow. But the company was going through ‘decentralisation’ and my role was to outsource the catering as the company split up over a number of sites. I got involved in the whole tendering process for the first time, and it gave me a step into consultancy that I found I really enjoyed.
Did you set up on your own straight away?
When I decided to make the move into consultancy full-time, I joined with Fiona Boyd-Thorpe at Food Service Associates, one of the first such consultancies in the UK. I spent five years working with Fiona, and the experience taught me a lot about the role of foodservice consultant.
So foodservice consultancy was a relatively new idea at this time in the 1990s?
Yes, and it quickly became clear that some of us had begun to feel very threatened by the ‘cost reduction’ consultancies, who pitched for business purely on the basis that they could make savings and were then paid a share of any they achieved. Any fool can come in and cut costs, and they took advantage of the situation. The result, in too many cases, I have to say, was poor service for the client.
How did the idea of the FCSI arise?
Among foodservice consultants, there was a growing feeling that we should be making an ethical stand on this point. Although the worldwide organisation of the FCSI already existed, it was very technical, but we saw no need to reinvent the wheel and start something from scratch, so we set up the UK chapter and moved it more towards foodservice management consultancy. I joined in 2001 and have seen it grow steadily from that time.
What was the next work move?
I then moved on to join Matthew Merritt-Harrison for five years, working more on the business and industry side of the market rather than the venues and destinations I had done with Fiona. In 2007, I started Andrew Etherington Associates (AEA) and, right from the start, I worked closely with Vic Laws at AVL on some projects. In 2013, we formalised the arrangement and became a partnership, with AVL taking everything in the education sector and the rest going through AEA.
You’re taking over as chair of FCSI UK and Ireland in July. What do you hope to do?
I see the primary need is to look at governance and responsibilities and to put them in the right position to help us move forward. I want to focus on giving value for membership. We need to ask members what they want, though I know, in broad terms, what they will say – they want to get business. To meet that need, we are recruiting a business development manager who will work on a part-time basis to bring in new members and retain existing ones.
This person will also be involved in the marketing and communications – inside and outside the industry – and identifying business opportunities for members. I’ve spoken to clients who have told me, ‘I didn’t know there was such a thing as catering consultants’, so we need to get the message out there about who we are and what we do. There are some big changes happening internally, with written job descriptions for all key roles, and a clear structure and procedures so members better understand how we work.
How do you plan to give the FCSI more of a voice?
I call it ‘back to basics’ – my mantra is to focus on members, giving value and growing the membership. We have so much industry knowledge and we want to be the go-to organisation for catering issues; I want to see us do more lobbying and networking, and put ourselves forward as the experts. Although our members are based in the UK and Ireland, many carry out work in the Middle East and Russia, and have a wealth of experience in these areas as well.
How does the UK and Ireland chapter fit into the FCSI organisation wordwide?
As far as the UK and Ireland chapter is concerned, I think it’s fair to say we’re revisiting our relationship within the Europe, Middle East and Africa division, and also with the global organisation. Jonathan Doughty, as worldwide president, has changed the structure to make it self-sustaining so that it no longer needs a contribution from us.
What do you see as the major issues facing your members?
They include the technical one of building information modelling (BIM), which is a way that anyone can understand a building through the use of a digital model. If clients want BIM underpinning all the work we do, then we need to make sure we’ve got the necessary skills.
I still see unethical consultancies at work, with clients getting ripped off, for example taking 5% of turnover as a fee from the contractors they appoint. We need to enhance the quality of standards and professionalism within the industry and make sure they are enforced, and you need an industry body driving that.
More generally, the issues that concern our work are the same as for other parts of the catering industry – health, well-being and food waste. We have to recognise that business is changing and that millennials drive many of the customer trends.
We also need to think about how we encourage young people into consultancies. Obviously, an important part of our skill set is the experience we’ve gained over the years, but we need to look at creating pathways so younger people can see a career in foodservice consultancy. And I want to reintroduce continuing professional development, which some of our younger members in particular are asking about.
What would you have done if you hadn’t become a foodservice consultant?
I love the countryside and being outdoors, so I would have been very drawn to country estate management or land management with the Forestry Commission. I live in the country and love gardening, so the whole garden design thing is also very attractive.
What would be your ideal meal?
A starter of cassoulet, a main course of veal escalope and spaghetti with a good Rioja wine. For dessert, you can’t beat fresh raspberries with a sprinkling of caster sugar.