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Case Study: Leisure & Cafes

YHA ENGLAND
& WALES

Charitable Organisation

INTRODUCTION

YHA is a national charitable organisation with more than 150 high quality, low-cost hostels. The properties across England and Wales are open to schools, families, couples and backpackers and offer a variety of catering options to guests.

Ready To Use Food Choices

THE CHALLENGE

Historically a self-catering operation, YHA has now introduced a restaurant and bar offering in many of its sites. With staff cross-trained on kitchen and housekeeping duties, not all sites have a dedicated catering team. As a result, food choices need to be ‘ready to use’. The majority of sites run a comprehensive menu ranging from light bites to salads, and pizzas to a special ‘Why Not Try’ board.

All YHA locations have access to different storage and kitchen facilities, which result in the menus altering slightly depending on the location amenities.In addition, the season affects the food offering. In winter, one site may serve around 20 meals a day, however, in the height of summer this may increase to over 1000 meals.

Stock estimates and storage are a factor that YHA needs to take into consideration when planning menus. YHA menu changes annually, and after years of deliberating how it can offer guests vegan suitable food, in February 2018, and then furthered this in 2019, YHA incorporated a vegan offering to its menu. The next step was finding ‘ready to use’ vegan suitable products that can adapt to varying storage capacities.

Exciting Menu Offering

THE SOLUTION

Vegan and plant-based diets have seen gargantuan growth over the past couple of years with the variety improving quite rapidly and, to a taste level that many would pass as non-vegan. As a customer of Creed, YHA is able to make full use of the Creed Development Kitchen. Alongside our Development Chef and Account Manager, YHA has tested a variety of vegan and non-vegan ‘ready to use’ products that it has implemented throughout its national sites.

By spending time trying and testing these products, it allows YHA to stock only products that are suitable for all diets and allergens, rather than holding varying versions of the same product. This reduces cost, wastage and problems with storage. Creed was able to present YHA with the Sidoli Vegan Devil’s Food Cake, Leathams Brioche vegan bun and Northern Bloc Ice Cream, which not only ticked all the dietary boxes but the taste was also preferred over the non-vegan versions.

The range of suppliers and menu development capabilities that Creed has access to allow YHA to offer a detailed and exciting menu offering to its guests. To discover the delicious menu YHA has to offer, visit www.yha.org.uk/food-drink

Above & Beyond

THE FEEDBACK

“The help we receive from Creed goes above and beyond. We have two development days a year booked into our contract with the Creed Business Development Team and our Account Manager, but they all bend over backwards to help outside of our specified development sessions. I can phone at any time and they are always at the end of the phone to help and answer any questions. Having a good relationship with our foodservice provider is imperative, and our working relationship with Creed is great. Our general and new vegan product offering is also new to Creed so it has been a learning curve for us both; collaboratively developing and coming up with new innovative ways to incorporate trends into our menus.“

Paul Temple
Food Development Manager, YHA England & Wales

Creed Foodservice

SUPPORT SOLUTIONS

DEVELOPMENT CHEF
& KITCHEN

BUSINESS COST REDUCTION
& WASTE SOLUTIONS

MENU COSTING &
NUTRITIONAL PLANNING