Corporate Catering in The Events Industry & Why it Matters

It wasn't that long ago that corporate catering as an industry didn't really exist - perhaps the key players in a company would dine out in their members club or local restaurant once a month or more. Or possibly their wives would be responsible for entertaining the bosses and clients at their dining tables at home - How things have changed!

The birth of corporate events catering really started in the 1980s with a growth in office and boardroom catering. Caterers were used to create delicious lunches and dinners and serve them in house to a company's big clients and board directors. Most often, these caterers excelled in buffets, perhaps big bowls of salads and cold meats, and lots of fabulous puddings. But corporate parties, hadn't yet really evolved as a big events spend.

In the 1990s though, corporate entertainment and events took on a whole new meaning. As the big spending banks and IT companies latched on to the fact that keeping their clients happy kept their bottom lines looking good, they started to find more cash in their budgets to facilitate this kind of corporate event, and so the corporate events teams of today were born!

Nowadays all the large global organisations have events teams whose sole responsibility is to plan and execute an events programme throughout the year – for employees, for clients (both current and prospective), for board members and often for the general public too.

These events may include annual parties for all staff, departmental trips abroad, client entertaining at music or sporting events such as race meetings or rugby tournaments, team participation in management training days, or just glitzy champagne receptions to woo potential new business.

And, at all these events, catering services are key. Let's face it, what use is a superb day at the races to pin down your new client, if he or she is expected to find themselves fish and chips on the way home! Corporate catering companies are simply crucial to the client/staff experience. They are responsible for the image you portray in your corporate entertainment package, as much as the tickets you buy for the attendees. Perfectly breathtaking canapés? The finest of the world's wines and champagnes? All down to the caterer. Ice carved seafood bars piled with oysters and lobster tails? Or breakfast meetings featuring stalls laden with freshly baked patisserie and mini bacon and eggs? Your caterer should be able to deliver. Creativity is always crucial of course – it's what makes each event memorable and what makes a businesses proposition therefore stand out from their competition. Far more so than the business pitch itself at times!

There are a huge variety of corporate events catering companies out there these days, and a massive range of catering services offered by them. Some may not be able to pull off huge gala dinners for 1500 guests, whereas others deliver events like this on an almost weekly basis. The biggest and best UK catering companies out there are more often than not based in London, and have very impressive lists of London-based corporate clients too – catering companies such as Alison Price, "rhubarb", Rocket and Urban Caprice look after big blue chip organisations such as Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Channel 4, to name just a few. They have teams of staff who can plan every minute detail of a corporate events' catering offer – from cloakroom staff to take coats on arrival, to goody bag packers to send guests home with delicious treats and luxuries. Nothing is too much when it comes to keeping the guests happy. Happy business is good business after all.