Adieu Azure

[father_and_son]

Care to share? I work bloody hard and don't believe I could do anything else to get through the queues any quicker

If the kiosk runs out of something fundamental (like PIES!), then its a 30sec+ conversation with everyone in the queue individually explaining why they can't order what they want and go through the alternatives.
If the overall operation had been better managed, there wouldn't have been the wasted time and the queues could have been dealt with much quicker.

It's (in my experience) not the serving staff, but the overall operation which fails! Clear PB felt the same.

 

[The Large One]

Everyone is focusing on piglets and harveys. What about other local producers? Could this mean a chance for other local pie/snack producers or breweries either alongside or instead of the current ones?

Why? Everyone had their chance - Piglet's 'won'.

 

[BensGrandad]

Who does the Catering at Tottenham?

Lindley Group Caterers who I believe also do it at Man City Stadium. Many years ago I did some work for a company called Stadia Catering who included Wolves and Ipswich and a number of other places in their portfolio and they were run by a chap named Jeremy Lindley, I wonder if this is an off shoot of that company.

 

[Return of the Rev]

The Football Business Award winning Azure have been given the boot.

Dear Noele,

Since moving to the American Express Community Stadium in 2011, the Club's aim has been to provide our supporters, hospitality customers and visitors with the best possible experience, on and off the pitch.

As with any venue, catering represents a very important element of the experience we provide and we have made it a high priority both for our matches and for all other events at the stadium.

Listening to our customers, we work wherever it is possible and viable to do so with locally produced products and local suppliers, such as Piglet's Pantry for our pies and Harvey's of Lewes for our ale, while striving for the highest possible levels of service, quality, and value for money for our fans and customers at all times.

Since the stadium's opening, we have attempted to meet these very important aims by working closely with a catering partner, Azure. Despite our best efforts, many customers do not feel that these aims have been met. With this in mind, we have decided to engage new caterers.

As of today, the Club has appointed emergency caterers to provide catering services to supporters and hospitality customers for our forthcoming matches against Bolton Wanderers and Bristol City, and for the various events and other matches we are hosting here at the Amex leading up to and beyond Christmas. A formal tender process to replace Azure on a long term basis will commence in the New Year.

The Club and its emergency caterers will be working very hard to minimise any inconvenience to supporters, hospitality customers and visitors during this unexpected transition and working together we will be aiming to provide the best possible level of service and a full range of products – including the continued sale of fans' favourites Piglet's pies and Harvey's ale - until the end of the season after which time we expect to have our new long term catering contract in place.

Clearly, we would ask for your patience during the next few weeks while our emergency caterers familiarise themselves with our stadium, train staff, introduce new systems, get to know us and get to know you, our customers. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and for your continued support. It is much appreciated by everyone at the Club. I do hope you enjoy our forthcoming matches and the upcoming festive period.


Paul Barber
Chief Executive
Brighton & Hove Albion FC

TYPICAL BARBER! JUST AS THE CATERING STARTED TO SETTLE DOWN HE HAS THROWN IT INTO CHAOS

 

[Easy 10]

In the venue I work in I am the Supervisor and a good one at that. I've had training in how to use the tills but last week two of the tills failed. The tills are electronic, Electronics fail sometimes and it took me a few minutes to sort one and the other was broken for the remaining of the shift. There was NOTHING I could do about it and no training would have solved while behind the bar. Until any one on this forum who is moaning has worked in a venue you have no idea of the pressure serving a huge amount of people in such limited time.

If you read my post again, I wasn't criticising the till operators. I'm criticising the fact that there is no support for the till operators when something goes wrong - they are relying on colleagues, who are already busy serving, to come and help sort the problem out.

From what I've seen, there IS no supervisor on hand to help when these problems crop up. That needs sorting, pronto.

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Whatever the reasons, and this board has been clogged to the gills with people moaning about Azure in the past, it strikes me as a bold and positive move by Mr Barber. I applaud him: he's found something he wants to change, and no mucking about, changes it. Excellent!

 

[The screamer]

If the kiosk runs out of something fundamental (like PIES!), then its a 30sec+ conversation with everyone in the queue individually explaining why they can't order what they want and go through the alternatives.
If the overall operation had been better managed, there wouldn't have been the wasted time and the queues could have been dealt with much quicker.

It's (in my experience) not the serving staff, but the overall operation which fails! Clear PB felt the same.

This I agree with... but the initial attack seemed to be on the (most likely minimum waged) staff who work there hardest for little reward

 

[Albion_Dave]

All down to not supplying chips

 

[The screamer]

All down to not supplying chips

If they supply chips will they need to supply gravy in the away end for norther teams?

 

[trueblue]

This is magnificent news. There will now officially be nothing to moan about at The Amex. I suppose it'll be chaos for the next few matches... But I doubt anyone will notice the difference.

 

[Czechmate]

Fair enough, and I do see this as a excellent idea, however we tried something similar and you get complete donuts who don't pay attention, queue and get to the front and refuse to accept it's a certain item only queue and while they are arguing their case, the customers behind are held up. So basically it works until others mess it up. I'm guessing that is why they stopped the Smart Card only queues too



I don't.. I work where there is a very similar set up

I don't dismiss you do a good job at wherever you work and it may run smoothly , and Azur have won a prize , so they must be good at certain places , but how can you say the place you work and the Amex are on par ?

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

It really is simple. Just get rid of all of the kiosks and have a gigantic wall like this:

 

[The screamer]

I don't dismiss you do a good job at wherever you work and it may run smoothly , and Azur have won a prize , so they must be good at certain places , but how can you say the place you work and the Amex are on par ?

Same basic concept... the separate queue system is tried and tested and shown not to work. You get difficult customers everywhere who try to push their luck.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This I agree with... but the initial attack seemed to be on the (most likely minimum waged) staff who work there hardest for little reward

If this how my post came across then sorry. This was not my intention.

 

[trueblue]

I disagree. There is plenty of scope for speeding up kiosk sales.

This. They're so disorganised it's untrue. Each transaction takes far too long.

 

[NorthStandN1A]

I think we should make Vicente part of the emergency caterer team !!!!

 

[Tooting Gull]

What a bizarre 'sacking'.

In the world of stadium catering this is virtually unheard of, get rid in such a hurry that you need emergency caterers to fill in.

If you feel you have grounds, you could put them on notice until a proper replacement is found, say six months. The relationship must have got really bad.

When you read the recent award on here, it is bordering on the comical.

http://www.footballbusinessawards.com/winners.html

 

[The Large One]

What a bizarre 'sacking'.

In the world of stadium catering this is virtually unheard of, get rid in such a hurry that you need emergency caterers to fill in.

If you feel you have grounds, you could put them on notice until a proper replacement is found, say six months. The relationship must have got really bad.

When you read the recent award on here, it is bordering on the comical.

http://www.footballbusinessawards.com/winners.html

They were put on notice.

They didn't improve.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Why? Everyone had their chance - Piglet's 'won'.

There has been a slight dip in the Piglets filling quality though, so maybe further competition will keep them on their toes?

 

[Max Paper]

Shall I get pissed BEFORE arriving is the question I need answering