Meet the Experts...

Making more profit from parties

The Hit or Miss in Stamford, Lincolnshire is a true community pub, attracting local villagers as well as customers from across town.

Due to the economic downturn food has become a real focus for The Hit or Miss. Darren Cheesman, who took over the pub with his wife just 15 months ago, is always looking for new and innovative ways to make his pub more successful, and was excited to trial the 'Party Time' menu from Moy Park Foodservice.

The 'Party Time' menu is a selection of easy to cook, simple to serve items that can be used together or separately to create a buffet-style menu; great for feeding larger groups of people easily. Products on the menu included Battered Natural Onion Rings, crispy coated Baby Camembert, Garlic Mushrooms and crispy coated Brie Wedges, among many others.

Darren served the Party Time buffet to just over 100 customers during the trial period, on 4 separate occasions, and sees real benefits in offering the menu on an ongoing basis, thanks to its easy preparation and great visual impact.

"The products on the 'Party Time' menu were very popular and customers were hugely complimentary; they kept going back for more! Favourites were the Crunchy Chick 'n' Mini Fillets and the Spinach and Feta Goujons. We used to make breaded chicken ourselves as we have never been satisfied with the quality of other ready-made chicken fillets. However, we will now be buying these from Moy Park as they are the best ones we have come across. Also, the Mini Donuts always went extremely quickly. It was a great addition to have something sweet to serve at the end of the buffet and they were really easy for people to pick up and nibble on.

Darren suggests that anyone can promote parties and events featuring buffets quite easily, and sees them as a great way to cash in on an additional revenue stream.

Top tips for serving a party menu:
Use eye-catching POS around the pub to promote the buffet Ensure food is quick and easy to prepare Listen to your customer to find out what they expect to see on a buffet table Provide the highest quality of food you can Always keep the price fair