Buckinghamshire Schools
Dated: 23/06/2011
Victor, one of the UK’s favourite counter and serveries manufacturer is supplying Buckinghamshire County Council schools with its British-made mobile foodservice counters. The County is instigating a new hot meals service and replacing school kitchens and dining facilities stripped out in the 1980s to make way for classrooms. The project aims to provide 60 schools with new facilities so that hot meals can be served, for the first time in over 20 years.
Nine new hub kitchens feeding satellite schools will offer 14,500 children the opportunity to choose a nutritionally balanced hot school meal. Hubs at major schools will supply satellite schools within an eight mile radius, using school transport to move cooked food housed in insulated trollies. On arrival the food is transferred into Victor’s hot/cold/ambient mobile serveries.
Hugh Maclennan, Project Manager for School Meals Improvement at the Council, and Mike Bridger, Business Development Director at Carford, the catering equipment supplier based in Ferndown, Dorset, specified Victor’s mobile serveries.
Peter Brewin, Marketing Manager at Victor says: “The units comprise a BM30MS Crown general purpose bains marie hot cupboard, matching RW30MS refrigerated well and coordinating plain top ambient unit fitted with gantry sneeze screen. All units are mobile: finished in stainless steel; manufactured, built to a child friendly height of 800mm; are complete with drop down tray slide, and powered by 13 amp plugs.
“So far we have supplied over 30 sites with more to follow, samples of which we will be showing at the LACA exhibition in August 2011.”
Maclennan explains why Victor units were ordered: “The schools needed a mix of fixed and mobile counters because of the different needs at the sites. Many schools are using the main hall as the dining room, so mobile units are crucial, so they can be pushed out of the way after service. Also important is durability, as they often have to be stored in the hall where PE classes are held.
“The Victor counters are a good price, reliable and they work for the schools. When you have experience of something that works well you ask for it again. The schools didn’t go solely on price, however, but wanted value for money and equipment that is fit for purpose.
“The Victor countering – bains marie, salad wells and ambient sections – all push together and look like one streamlined unit. The units are stainless steel but the schools can choose their own colours for the laminated fronts.”
Maclennan says: “I am very pleased with how things are working out so far. The only worry I have is the take up of the new school meals is way above what we estimated. Demand has far exceeded expectations. On the first day the satellite facilities went operational we had planned for 100 meals and we actually served 150: on the second day we had a take-up of 180.“
For more information on Victor’s General Purpose hot cupboards and the Empress range of refrigerated salad wells please Click Here