Case study · Culinary + Products
A hospitality group with several brands and one moulding supplier.
Each restaurant brand had its own dessert moulds, ice programme and branded bar accessories, bought from different places. The group wanted consistency across sites and less purchasing admin.
The brief
What the customer arrived with.
The group operated several restaurant and bar brands across the UK. Each brand's kitchen had sourced its own silicone moulds over the years, and the bar teams bought branded ice moulds and accessories separately. Central purchasing wanted fewer suppliers, consistent quality across sites, and documented food-contact paperwork for every item.
How it went
Stage by stage.
Audit of what was in use
We started by cataloguing the moulds in use across a sample of sites: dessert forms, petit-four trays, chocolate garnish moulds and ice moulds. Many were near-duplicates bought from different suppliers.
Kitchen tooling — Culinary
TCI Culinary rationalised the dessert and pastry moulds into a shared set per brand, in platinum-cure, PFAS-free silicone with a written material spec for each. Every site of a brand now uses the same cavity, so portions and presentation match.
Bar and branded items — Products
TCI Products produced branded silicone ice moulds and bar accessories carrying each brand's mark, made under contract to a seasonal schedule.
Group coordination
One lead engineer and one quote covered both divisions. Invoicing was split by brand to match the group's cost centres.
The result
Each brand has a documented mould set, reordered centrally as items wear. Purchasing deals with one supplier record, and new-site openings are supplied from the same specification.
Lessons
What we took from the job.
What we took from it
Cataloguing what's already in use often reveals more duplication than anyone expected.
What we took from it
Consistency across sites came from specifying cavities once, not from asking each site to buy carefully.
What we took from it
Splitting invoices by brand mattered as much to the customer as the moulds themselves.
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Where to read next.
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The group
Which divisions worked on this
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Five brands, one team
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- A real Warwickshire workshopUnit 15, Waterloo Park, Bidford-on-Avon, Alcester B50 4JG.
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- Five brands, one teamMoulds, culinary, construction and contract products, all run from Bidford-on-Avon. See the divisions.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare