This year we are celebrating 30 years of Connect Catering!

This year we are celebrating 30 years of Connect Catering!

Founded in 1989 by John Herring, the company has grown from 1 to 450 staff;

Changed offices 5 times;

Served thousands of delicious meals to lovely clients and their employees, pupils and residents;

and trained hundreds of wonderful employees.

As the company has grown the core values that John established have remained.

People. Value. Quality.

John’s entrepreneurial streak and strong work ethic, ensured that when he bought a small hotel, he was soon purchasing a second and successfully growing his business.

Missing out on seeing his young family grow up, he sold his hotels in 1976 to spend more time with his girls.  However, the business ideas didn’t stop and the urge to start another one never went away.

In 1984 John jointly formed Counterpoint Catering.

It took 5 months to get the first contract, however, the quality of their service was evident and it soon snowballed into 18 plus contracts in a year.

In 1989 Counterpoint Catering split and Connect Catering was formed!

If you care and you try, I will forgive you for anything.

John Herring

Things have changed a lot over the past 30 years. Technology and the world around us has progressed at a rapid pace, and this is just as true for us at Connect.

The Connect Logo Has Developed…

Connect Through The Years

From 1989, we have always valued every member of every team. Empowerment ensures good communication, job satisfaction and a highly motivated workplace. Great teams result in a great service – it’s very easy to say, however, it requires strong leadership and constant commitment to deliver what we promise.

This has led us to becoming a company people want to work for. We train to instil confidence and develop knowledge whilst making work as enjoyable as possible for everyone, plus we are winning awards to prove it. One of John’s proudest moments came when he stepped up on stage in 2019 to collect Connect’s 1st place award in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies To Work For. This national competition is based on our employees’ anonymous feedback, measuring criteria such as leadership, personal growth, wellbeing and work life balance.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the support and training of our staff, not only to our required knowledge level, but beyond. This means we have some true experts in their field. Each team member is trained and developed; enabling them to give their best whilst at work and deliver a great service.

During the past 30 years Connect has always served locally sourced, freshly prepared food. Many things have changed due to developments in technology from the ordering of goods, to enhanced food safety systems in the kitchen, to stringent monitoring records, all of which has meant Connect delivers best practice, every step of the way. Connect now holds four ISO certifications for our robust health and safety, quality, environment and energy monitoring systems.

We are so proud to be working at such a fantastic company. We are looking forward to developing Connect further with the help of our valued team members.

Louise Laver, Joint Managing Director

Kate and Louise worked within Connect developing their skills and understanding of best practice so when John decided to retire, they were ready for the challenges ahead.

Kate trained and as a Cordon Bleu Chef and worked her way up through the kitchens, then moved to the operations team and then to sales.

Louise graduated with a Management Systems degree and worked her way up through the administration and infrastructure of Connect, focusing on the processes side of the business.

In 2014, John stepped back and Kate and Louise, with their joint and extensive knowledge, came together and took on the role of Joint Managing Directors. They continue to lead Connect giving it amazing long-term continuity whilst driving it forward, never forgetting the core values that Connect stands for.

Even in this current challenging period, we know that with our fantastic staff, strong and compassionate leadership and commitment to always give the best value possible; Connect Catering will go from strength to strength for years to come.

We are all going through very difficult times, but it is important to support everyone working for us and do the best job we can, pulling together. We love Connect and its whole ethos of caring for people and delivering really good food! We just love it!

Kate Bendall, Joint Managing Director