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Center Parcs broke the mould when it turned your stereotypical idea of a UK holiday park on its head and in 20 years, occupancy has not once dipped below 90 percent.
As every company with a winning formula knows, you simply cannot afford to rest on your laurels and over the past two years, Center Parcs has undergone a transformation to bring the concept bang up to date, including a host of new woodland and executive lodges.
A major element of the revamp has been very much focused on the food and drink offering. Each Center Parcs village features popular High Street brands such as Tragus-owned Strada, Bella Italia and Cafe Rouge, as well as a Starbucks Coffee franchise, run by Center Parcs itself.
On top of this, Center Parcs has steadily built up its own independent food and drink options. Concepts include Rajinda Pradesh, an authentic Indian restaurant, the all day dining Sports Cafe in the Jardin des Sport, Huck’s contemporary American Diner, Made grab ‘n’ go snack bar, The Pancake House and Lagoon kiosks in the pool area, offering refreshments and ice creams.
Brand new to Center Parcs is ‘Dining’, whereby guests can order Indian, Italian or Chinese cuisine and have it delivered personally to their villa or collect it from a reception point.
“All of our outlets and menus have undergone an exciting transformation over the past year,” said Center Parcs’ group food and beverage manager, Eddie McAdam. “Huck’s particularly so. We listen to our guests to establish what they want and ensure our whole portfolio gives them that level of choice. They need confidence, comfort and value when eating out with us.”
With front of house family favourites like Heinz Tomato Ketchup and classics such as Heinz Beanz part of the furniture at Center Parcs, Heinz’ decision to become more actively involved in foodservice through tailored back of house products was a welcome evolvement.
One of the first of these products to hit CenterParcs was apple-based
Heinz BBQ Sauce launched in 2007 to give an authentic US Deep
South-inspired, versatile sauce which could be used for dipping, marinating, basting and grilling.
Today, the super fruity sauce with a hint of honey is used to baste rib dishes and BBQ wings in two of Center Parcs busiest outlets; Huck’s and Sports Cafe, which sees up to 400 people a day pass through its doors. It is also served up cold in a ramekin as a delicious accompaniment. But why not make their own?
“We have gone through quite a few menu changes and one of the biggest problems a business like ours faces is consistency. People come to expect a certain level of consistency and if we make sauces like this from scratch every day, we cannot achieve this.
Chefs might alter the recipe, use different ingredients or employ different cooking methods and, to be sure, we need products we can trust to do the job. Heinz
is a name people trust, everyone’s familiar with.
“Heinz BBQ Sauce is made of natural ingredients, is tasty, and answers this demand, adding an extra touch of quality to our dishes. We can also rely on the support from Heinz Foodservice as a company in terms of recipes and advice. They tick all the boxes and match our values.
“Our business is doing well because we offer great value and continue to invest in what we do. This is exactly why we endorse Heinz.
We are both market leaders and by using them, it sends out an important message to our guests. It’s easy to buy cheaper but we don’t. Quality counts.”