CHR Equipment Ltd delivering profitable solutions to the UK Food Service Industry

Cadbury World

Birmingham

A new kitchen to cater for a 40% growth in visitor numbers to the UK’s only purpose-built visitor centre dedicated to chocolate is delivering ‘green’ values- with a 30% saving in energy consumption alongside increased production capacity.

Cadbury World in Bournville, Birmingham originally opened a decade ago, and has seen visitor numbers increase by some 60,000pa. As a result, the original kitchen was struggling to cope with demand to provide up to 900 cooked meals in an average week- until leading commercial kitchen designer and supplier CHR Equipment developed a solution.

Working closely with Cadbury World and its contract caterer Redcliffe Catering, CHR designed and installed a facility that had to be at least up to latest food hygiene standards, easily maintained and cleaned, easy and safe to operate, deliver the volume and variety of dishes- and be as sustainable as possible.

The new kitchen focuses on electricity as the main fuel to power state-of-the-art induction cookers, griddle pans and combination ovens. Refrigeration is integrated into hand-built stainless steel units on rodent free, water repellent plinths, and plant relocated away from the main cooking zone to minimize excess heat build-up.

Explains Paul Neville, CHR Equipment Director, “Thinking outside the box in how to power the whole kitchen and maintain an efficient working environment has meant we have reduced ventilation requirements by 30% over the old kitchen and overall energy consumption by 20%- even though the kitchen is busier and producing more meals!

“Using gas as a cooking fuel, for example, has major impact in ventilation demands; you have to bring up 85% of the extract air to meet the HVCA and Building Regualation requirements. The challenge is heating that air. It’s very expensive to do, and the plant itself generates heat. Switching to electricity and the latest, energy-efficient equipment has created a kitchen that will help Cadbury World deliver a sweet experience for ½ million+ visitors a year for years to come.”

Added Gerrard Baldwin, Cadbury World general manager, “It was a tricky project, to create a modern environment that would be easy to clean and sustainable, installed with minimal impact on our day to day business. A key aim was to reduce the power requirement, in line with Cadbury’s corporate sustainability policy, and we are achieving an overall saving of about 30% – better than we hoped for! CHR delivered everything we asked, and more, on time and on budget.”

Founded in 1993, CHR Equipment has grown to become one of the leading commercial kitchen companies in the UK, delivering solutions for venues as diverse as local pub’s through Michelin starred restaurants to stadia.

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