Fashion in Focus: Catering

In today’s competitive restaurant and food service industry more and more business owners are extending their branding and corporate identity to areas that until recently has been out of bounds to customers.

With more people being turned on to food by celebrity chefs and a general back to basics cooking culture in the UK. People are now becoming more interested not just in what they are eating when they go out, but how their food is being prepared. Shows such as hells kitchen have invited the consumer right into the heart of the kitchen and sparked national interest in all things foodie.

This has led to more restaurants opening up kitchens to the discerning view of their customers and provides another perfect opportunity for the business smart restaurant owner to promote their brand in a way never before known.

Even basic measures such as coordinated chef’s uniforms promote an impression of a professional well oiled kitchen and in turn instill confidence in the consumer. One can also use custom embroidery or printing to attach your corporate logo or branding to your kitchen workforce extending the coverage area of your branding.

Many businesses are now employing the services of professional work clothing designers and are already seeing the return in revenue that a coordinated approach between front of house staff presentation and an open kitchen with coordinated uniform can bring. Applying a design professional to your in house branding will ensure coordination through out your business while defining and promoting the roles within your service for the customer.

Many restaurants have taken this approach further and are trading on the name of there head chiefs effectively branding there staff and marketing them via such initiatives as kitchen days and cookery lessons. This approach is becoming more sought after by the consumer who now wants to be a part of there dining experience and what better way to remember this experience than for them to purchase ready branded chiefs apparel from their favorite restaurant. The opportunities appear to be endless in this new and exciting corporate workwear environment!

2011 a year for new business and a chance to rebrand

Finally the UK is starting to see the light at the end of the recession tunnel! While Christmas sales weren’t as good as five years ago they are starting to climb as consumer confidence starts to become more stable. Even humble garment retailers and manufactures are starting to notice an increase in new companies requiring their services and once again the mantra of the new business set is branding branding branding!

Even companies that traditionally had no interest in corporate image are starting to understand that the discerning customer is now looking for a relationship with their suppliers that they can identify with. No more prevalent is this trend, than on the shop floor with companies from small building firms to large national retail chains investing in embroidered workwear bearing anything form a small embroidered company logo to full corporate branding.

So what are we to expect when organising our corporate identity with a professional garment reseller. Normally company’s would submit there corporate design as a picture (either by email or on a disk via the post) this will then go through the process of digitization. This is where the picture/logo is converted into a stitch configuration that can be read by an automated embroidery machine.

Normally a setup fee is charged for this but depending of the supplier you choose this could be either a one off fee or may be added as a smaller fee every time a garment is customised (personally we would recommend a suppler that is up front and charges you a one off fee, after all how many times are you going to alter your company logo!) once this process is complete you are ready to customize any garment you wish with this setup (beware of unscrupulous retailers who try to make you pay a separate setup fee for different garments!)

What garments can be customized? Well the simple rule is if you can wear it you can customise it, from baseball caps to socks handkerchiefs to umbrellas the world of customisable corporate clothing is endless!