Page 24 - Flaming Cauldron – Issue 59

ACC ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
my ‘hat in the ring’, was selected for redundancy,
returned from Cyprus in May and left the Army
in October 1994. Although I had seen through the
formation of The RLC in April 1993 in Cyprus, it
didn’t mean that much personally as I was already
doing a wider logistic job, but I did need a new cap
badge and stable belt!
Given my previous experience with contract
catering companies, it probably wouldn’t surprise
you to know that after leaving the Army that
I joined the then fledgling NAAFI Commercial
Enterprises (NCE) at Amesbury with two other
experienced colleagues who had started up around
a year earlier. I didn’t particularly want to work
for one of the bigger, well-known organisations as
I was happy to gain commercial experience in a small
company. A wholly owned subsidiary of NAAFI,
NCE was formed with the intention of building
upon their knowledge of and presence within most
Armed Forces locations around the world. A sound
theory, at least we thought so, and, having started to
win some early contracts, NAAFI’s early experience
of winning and operating a separate food supply
contract did not initially go well. Suffice to say that
NAAFI had to focus on getting this right and their
support for our part of the organisation receded,
shall we say! Time to go and take my experience
elsewhere.
For many years afterwards I worked for some
small (UK) and some not so small (international)
contractors in both sales and operations, mixing
civilian and other Government department con-
tracts (schools, hospitals, prisons and business
and industry) as often as possible to expand my
knowledge and experience. Between jobs on one
occasion, I provided some consultancy and later
joined a business partner providing hospitality for
motorsport clients in Moto GP, World Rally and
Superbikes. I also won a few other contracts includ-
HQ Berlin Inf Bde Cookery
ing providing a London restaurant and hospitality
Competition (back row
services at one of the world’s leading classical music
PAGE 24
venues. Great fun, extremely hard work but not well
remunerated so time to get a ‘proper job’.
In late 1999 I was fortunate to be appointed as
the first Operations Director for the British Army
Germany (BAG) hotel services contract covering
all 6 Garrisons then, although soon to reduce to 5,
it was an immense challenge as a first-time contract
including all messes and schools through BAG.
This included a large number of mostly German
civilians as well as an early model whereby military
chefs were embedded into the contract. Not having
been involved in the bid or mobilization process
was perhaps an advantage, as too much background
knowledge is sometimes a disadvantage. Suffice to
say that it was a huge challenge with the contract
being jointly won by a commercial partner together
with NAAFI, the latter having the advantage of
being subject to the Status of Forces Agreement
which conferred some benefits. I had the pleasure
of working with some very fine people, a manage-
ment team of around 80 UK based civilians were
recruited to start up the contract, German civilians
and of course our very own RLC chefs and food
service officers. There were many interesting times,
good, bad and quite honestly ugly at times, but I
wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Nevertheless,
two years was enough for me, my wife Janice and
our boys were still in the UK, and I had neglected
them for long enough.
I joined another international contracting
company as Operations Director to look after
their modest portfolio of cleaning and catering
contracts. This particular company with its interna-
tional headquarters in Denmark provided me with
an opportunity to grow their Defence business in
the UK and over a number of years that’s what we
did. I was joined by one dedicated sales colleague
in the early days before we became more successful
and contact bids became much more complex with
the arrival of multi-site, multi-activity Catering,
left) Retail, Leisure and food supply. Having won one
Army Multi Activity Contract (MAC) in south-
ern England, the company set about bidding for
larger, increasing complex Defence contracts and
was eventually successful in winning the multi-unit
Royal Air Force MAC. The time and energy, both
emotional and physical, injected into this process
cannot be underestimated as I recall at an early stage
in the mobilization, we were dealing with around
85 refurbishment projects as well as mobilizing
the various support services on several large and
small RAF bases around the UK, before the ‘cav-
alry’ arrived in more numbers to support a regional
rollout. Anyway, after 11 mostly happy years it was
time for me to give my elderly and increasingly frail
parents some of my time.
Approaching my late 50s, I wasn’t really sure
whether I would find gainful employment again and
was delighted to apply for and be successful in being
appointed as Secretary to a London Club. Having
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