Owners Of Events Catering example essay topic

The catering business in this area is a very competitive market. Since we live in the capital of the US, people tend to be more elegant and throw more parties, especially wealthy people. In order to survive in this market, or in any kind of market, you have to get a feel for how your top competitors do business. This will help avoid mistakes made by them and see the positive things in their company so I can adjust them to mine.

I did some research and found the top two catering companies in the area Events Catering and Occasions Catering. I got the opportunity to interview one of the owners of Events Catering, John Jackson who is also the CEO of the company. We had an extensive conversation on how they do business. They are the top catering company in this area.

This is mainly because they don't only offer you the catering service, but also the rental of the equipment needed for the party. They have an enormous warehouse were they have everything from complete kitchen stoves to forks and knives for party rentals. Another service offered by this company is that, since they have been in this business for many years now, they have people that you can contact for the decoration, flower arrangements, music and any other thing aside from the food that you will need for you event. As John Jackson said, Events Catering is has and is controlled by three owners; one of which is the president, the other one is in charge of the warehouse and the third is in charge of handling business with extremely important customers. The company counts with a general manager, who oversees all of the company including the warehouse. Then there is the sales associate manager who is in charge of all the sales associate personnel, who are the ones that sell the party to the client.

There is also a manager for scheduling, a department in charge of calling and scheduling waiters for the events. In the kitchen, they count with a manager that oversees all of the kitchen and then a supervisor for each individual kitchen, which are the pastry kitchen, bread kitchen, cold kitchen and hot food kitchen. The warehouse has the same kind of structure; a manager for each area, linen, silverware, and cleaning. All of these managers meet once every other week to discuss and solve any issues concerning their area.

Events Catering does not invest too much money or time in marketing. This is mainly because they are the oldest company in the market and word of mouth is their main marketing strategy. But like any other company it does need a little of exposure. This is why they have ads in top bridle magazines and top food magazines. The ads always show a table, very well presented with their best tableware, and some of their more elaborate food.

Events Catering has also a show room that is remodeled four times a year, every time there is a change in the season. Like the showroom, Events Catering, recreates everything for each season. Every change of seasons the sales associates get together and create new menus to offer their clients with. Since most of their clients have been the same for many years, in order to stay in business they have to be creative and innovative. Also they bring new linen for each season.

For summer they try to have colorful linen and for winter they have more darken color and heavy material for their linens. I think that the reason why this company has done so well is their customer orientation. They are very concerned in fulfilling all the clients needs and wants. They offer them the entire commodity a customer could expect. A free tasting of their menus is given sometimes so customers can decide what they want to offer in their party. When the party begins, the company also takes care of the setting up and when it is over, the company cleans up the place where the party was given.

Basically the client just has to worry about the cost and that is it. Every day the company receives a lot of inquiring calls asking about their prices and availability to cater a party. They have business all year round but like any market it has its high seasons and its low seasons. In a high season the chefs prepare food sometimes for close to four thousand people a day and in a low season they prepare food for three hundred to eight hundred people a day. Because of this day to day changes in operations, this business is constantly varying the way of management.

In high season it is very hectic, calls come in every second not to schedule parties because parties are scheduled at least three to four months ahead of time, but to ask for more equipment or food, or to talk to a sale associate regarding a problem in a party. In this market you will encounter with many risks and problems, and this is one company that knows about it. In order to prevent lay-off in low seasons, Events Catering has to sell a lot during high season to use that profit to maintain the salary of all their employees during low seasons. There have been times were they have not been able to pull it, and because of the lack of profits there were some layoffs. Events Catering did not start in the market with everything it has now. They have invested a lot of money in equipment, buildings and personnel.

They started out with a very small kitchen and some offices. Little by little the bank has offered them loans to buy buildings for new offices and for the warehouse also they have had to take out loans to buy all the equipment that they now own. All of these loans have paid off because they are the only catering company that owns all of the equipment needed for the parties. Because of it, every cent they receive for each event belongs to them, meaning that they do not have to pay equipment rental or anything like that. They only thing that they have to worry about is paying the waiters; the rest is mostly profit. Occasions Caterers is the second largest catering company in the area.

I could not get a hold to one of the owners to get an interview so I went to their web page to obtain some information on the company. Occasions Caterers web page, web showed me that the company has been in business for sixteen years. It is currently a very stable company and one of the top catering companies in the area. Like Events Catering, Occasion Caterers offers a complete course meal to the client. They have a list of florist, musicians, lighting, transportation, and pastry chefs, who work closely with them. A customer may contact these people anytime in order to fully prepare an event.

In the menus they include breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. A customer also has the choice to create his or her own menu. Occasions Caterers also offers a wide variety of fine china, silver, decorative platters, and handcrafted baskets. The two owners currently work inside of the company, one as the CEO and the other one as the creative director of it.

They have one executive chef, who is in charge of all the kitchens. There are seven account executives, which directly deal with the client. Their mission is to sell the event to the client. Currently Occasion Caterers hold around one hundred employees. Occasion Caterers has a more aggressive marketing strategy. They also have ads in magazines that are run each month in about 4 magazines and 2 newspapers.

Even though they invest in these ads, they believe that the best marketing is word of mouth. That is the reason why they are committed to satisfy their clients one hundred percent. Occasions offer a wide variety of foods depending on what kind of events the customer wants to have. I think that Occasions offer more variety than Events Catering. Not only do they offer different kind of food but also have different menu logos. They offer different styles of events for different clients and tastes.

They have less staff and equipment that some other companies but this company has learned to work with what they have. The process starts by the client choosing the menu for his or her party. Then the account executive has to match the scene of the event with the linen, flowers, silverware and glassware. During this process the account executive always takes into consideration the clients needs and wants. Like I mentioned before with Events Catering, there are great risks in any kind of market, and catering is not an exception. With what happened on September 11, many of their parties got cancelled and they were left with a lot of food that could not be used.

This is something that can happen anytime and in the past has happened. For one reason or another parties can get cancelled. This is when the company has to figure out what to do with the food, or if they should charge the client for it, and the company eventually losses money. Again, this company also started very small. They only had the capacity to handle only very small parties. The business went so well that in two years they had grown tremendously.

They moved to a bigger building in the heart of the nation capital. Not only did they get a bigger building, but also landed bigger clients. Occasions Caterers continues to grow very rapidly. After analyzing these two companies I have realized that there is more work into this business, than what I thought there would be. The positive thing, though, is that these companies have both grown enormously and in a considerable amount of time. I think that analyzing these two potential competitions is very good and will help me avoid mistakes made by them.

It also gave me a better feeling about the adventure that I am getting in. I found out of the real problems that I might have to face in the market and also learned of some solutions.