Independent family-owned hotel and holiday resort group, Daish's Holidays expanded its operations division with the appointment of Gemma Wilson as Hotel Group Controller.

Gemma has over 25 years' experience in the hospitality and leisure industry, including a 15 year partnership with Regency Purchasing Group across her previous roles. It was therefore unsurprising that, on the second day in her new role with Daish's, Gemma contacted Regency Purchasing Group to once again enrol our support.

In her role with Daish's, Gemma is responsible for overseeing the group's operational budgetary control, assisting with training and development, developing menu choices across the group's 12 UK-based hotels, as well as ensuring continued compliance with hospitality rules and regulations.

Sian Collins from Regency Purchasing Group spent time with Gemma understanding the hotel group's existing supply chain, analysing prices against the market and reviewing menu consistency across all 12 hotel sites.

Following an in-depth business analysis, Sian and the team at Regency successfully consolidated Daish's supply chain from 46 suppliers to three key suppliers. The project also involved streamlining the menus across the group to drive cost-savings and operational efficiencies as well as improving product quality - and all of this was achieved while also delivering an impressive cost saving of 25% across their whole estate.

On Tuesday 16 June 2023, Daish's management team, general managers and chefs attended a food development day at The Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare, organised by Regency Purchasing Group.

Two chefs from Daish's were joined by Regency's Development Chef, Andy Chan, and the kitchen team worked together to showcase 12 new dishes to the Daish's team.

Each dish was discussed in detail, with a focus on consistency and standardisation, with all members of the team tasting the new creations.

The MenuIQ menu management solution, which is also currently being rolled out across the group, was demonstrated and the team were able to understand how they will use the system to monitor and control portion sizes, cost per dish, cooking methods, presentation, nutrition and allergy data and compliance.

The day concluded with a presentation from Jill Carter, Regency's dedicated account manager from Nisbets, along with a showcase of the new crockery and cutlery that will be used for each dish.

Following a hugely successful food development day, the new menu will be rolled out across all Daish's sites on 1st June 2023.

Gemma Wilson, Daish's Hotel Group Controller commented on the day:

"When it came to appointing a partner to assist us with our menu development, I instantly knew that Regency were the people for the job."

"Having achieved great things with Sian and the Regency team in the past, I knew we were in safe - and very experienced - hands and as expected, Sian left no stone unturned and she really got under the skin of our business to understand what we are all about."

"Working with Regency allows our operations team to set the strategy and the brief, then hand over to the Regency team who liaise with suppliers and negotiate prices on our behalf. This allows the Daish's team to focus on other areas of the business. We are thrilled to have achieved a 25% saving across our food buying - quite an achievement with current price increases and inflationary challenges."

"The food development day allowed key members of our team to sample our new menus; the day was a resounding success for everyone involved and it really highlighted the value of our partnership with Regency Purchasing Group."

Chris Burton, Daish's Group Development Chef added:

"Working in collaboration with the team at Regency, including their own Development Chef, we have designed and developed exciting new menus using great quality ingredients from a reduced number of carefully selected suppliers."

"I cannot wait to roll out the new menus next month - I'm confident our guests are going to love the new dishes, and I'm equally confident that we can now maintain quality levels and consistency across all of our sites while keeping a close eye on our margins."

Chris went on to share his opinion on MenuIQ:

"MenuIQ will be a vital tool for our chefs, providing them with one simple-to-use system that will allow them to constantly monitor their menu costings, improve consistency and maintain portion control, as well as having the most up-to-date allergen and nutrition data - without the need for manual processes. To have this information available at the touch of a button is going to massively improve our ways of working."

Many thanks to the teams at Booker, Bidfood and Nisbets for supporting the development day.