With catering and food sales continuing to offer major add-on profit opportunities for garden centres, leading garden trade show Glee (14 – 16 September, NEC Birmingham) organised by i2i Events Group, will be offering retailers extensive inspiration at a more prominent Food & Catering Zone this year. Sponsored by experts, Catering Design Group and Blue Cap Coffee (Lavazza), this area gives garden retailers an unrivalled opportunity to gather best practice examples, advice, contacts and products to help them initiate or improve their catering offering.

Now in its third year, the Food & Catering Zone will be bigger than ever, and will be a rich resource for any retailer wanting to expand their catering facilities.  In addition to the wide range of catering services, confectionary, kitchen equipment, kitchenware and café/restaurant design consultancy specialists that have made their home within this dedicated area in recent years, retailers will also find additional inspiration to explore within the newly introduced Farmers Market.  Home to artisan suppliers, the Farmers Market will be packed with everything from locally sourced brands to specialist produce as well as delicious food and drinks from an exciting mix of catering innovators.

The Food & Catering Zone will also address key issues with an unrivalled workshop programme.  This year topics up for discussion include seasonal events and marketing strategies to attract customers year-round, how garden centres can win the coffee shop ‘wars’, attracting younger customers to your on-site catering, supply chain efficiency and much more. Speakers will include Helen MacDonald, owner of Merryhatton Garden Centre, Iain Wylie, Chief Executive of The Garden Centre Association, Tracey Fletcher, owner of Kitchen Garden, Will Armitage, MD of Armitages Garden and Home, Helen Pyttlik, garden centre manager, Bicester Avenue Garden Centre, and John Williams, director of Blue Cap Coffee. 

Another name to add to the already impressive ‘who’s who’ list of experts is Unilever Food Solutions, one of the world’s leading food companies that owns many well-known brands such as Knorr, Hellman’s, Colman’s, Flora and Stork. Its passion for understanding what people want and need from food make its brands a trusted part of people’s lives. Unilever will undoubtedly play a significant part at this year’s show, as it will be addressing the changes to the Food Labelling and Allergen Legislation which are due to come into force in December.

With more exhibitors than ever before the Food & Catering Zone will be an exciting showcase.  Key brands to look out for include Cafeology, Belvoir Fruit Farms, GMS Expresso, Vision Commercial Kitchens, Bon Bon (Wholesale) Ltd, English Garden Tea, eXpresso Plus, Horti Catering Equipment, Moonshine Drinks, NBTY Europe, The Victorian Kitchen, Tudor Tea & Coffee and UCC Coffee.

Phillip Howard, Managing Director, Catering Design Group, one of the area’s 2014 sponsors comments: “We’re delighted to be returning to Glee and proud to be one of the partners of the Food & Catering Zone in 2014. We’ll be bringing along our great team of experts across design, kitchen planning and project management to give visitors advice and answer any questions they may have. We’ll also be sharing an abundance of hints, tips, trends and insights to enable visitors to create a destination catering space.”

i2i’s Matthew Mein, Glee event manager added: “This year’s Food & Catering Zone is set to be the best yet! The area will not only be bigger and packed full of even more exhibitors than ever before, but with the guidance of our new sponsors and with the hugely valuable feedback of the recent Food & Catering Steering Group, we have been able to develop a programme that is as targeted and hard working as possible.”