Watford land £5.6m from The Lindley Group's catering and hospitality deal
7:11pm Thursday 6th September 2012 in Latest Sport
The Lindley Group will pay Watford £5.6m over the course of four years as part of an agreement which will see the company look after not only the club’s catering but their hospitality and events departments.
The Watford Observer revealed last month that the Hornets were no longer planning to use their in-house catering company and had switched to Lindley Venue Catering – which is part of the Lindley Group.
And it has since been disclosed that Lindley will also provide sales and marketing services aimed at increasing the use of facilities at Vicarage Road on non-match days.
This has led to some members of staff ceasing to be employees of the club and they now work for Lindley.
Hornets chief executive Scott Duxbury, pictured, claims having a specialist catering and marketing company will help the club improve it’s revenue potential.
He said: “We have been looking at all aspects of the club and felt that catering and hospitality was an area where we could benefit from the expertise and experience of a specialist.
“I’ve worked with contract caterers in the past, so I knew what I was looking for – a business with a fresh approach and new ideas, one which could really engage with us and help us to make a major step change in terms of enhancing the match-day experience and proactively bringing non-match day business to the club.
“I invited Lindley Venue Catering to put forward their ideas for how they could work with us on developing the match-day catering and events business at Vicarage Road over the next four seasons, and we were impressed with their professionalism and their vision for how we can maximise the revenue potential from catering to invest back into the club.”
Lindley Venue Catering is based in Stoke and has agreed deals with a number of football clubs this summer.
Among those are Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur and Football League outfits Millwall, Notts County and Rotherham United.
Comments(32)
lutondown
says...
7:35pm Thu 6 Sep 12
buckler wrote:Can't beat a pukka me old mukka!
Pukka Pies on the way!
Cornet, roll over its now a ryhming war
buckler
says...
8:06pm Thu 6 Sep 12
lutondown
says...
8:08pm Thu 6 Sep 12
buckler wrote:So I'll buy four small ones
Wont be selling family sized ones to eat!
#greedypig!
The Rover
says...
8:29pm Thu 6 Sep 12
CreteJoe
says...
8:33pm Thu 6 Sep 12
lutondown
says...
8:38pm Thu 6 Sep 12
CreteJoe wrote:Mein Gott, unbelievable negativity and I think it's you business acumen that's suspect
If the Lindley Group think it is worth paying out £5.6m to the club it is because they expect to make more than £5.6m over the next four years. Money which will not go to the club, looks like bad business acumen to me.
miked2006
says...
9:02pm Thu 6 Sep 12
CreteJoe wrote:Do you really think the Pozzo's would agree to this if the club made over 5.6 million over the previous 5 years. The money to the club is guaranteed and therefore at no risk to us, the pressure is on them to improve the catering to a sufficient standard so that they earn their money back.
If the Lindley Group think it is worth paying out £5.6m to the club it is because they expect to make more than £5.6m over the next four years. Money which will not go to the club, looks like bad business acumen to me.
Hornofplenty
says...
9:05pm Thu 6 Sep 12
CreteJoe wrote:We don't have the details of the terms of the agreement. There will likely be a number of facets to the contract that will likely include % of revenue comes back to club, targets etc around the non match day piece and I would presume that this fee is actually a reasonable return if they have properly sold the concept of our return to premiership plan within the next 2-3 years. Duxbury is no fool and I would expect all sorts of protections and claw backs in the deal if not... I am available for consultancy....
If the Lindley Group think it is worth paying out £5.6m to the club it is because they expect to make more than £5.6m over the next four years. Money which will not go to the club, looks like bad business acumen to me.
D.unstable
says...
9:07pm Thu 6 Sep 12
Good job Bas didn't have this idea, it would have been signed up and out of the country by now.
I wonder if he ever got his deposit back on the other big screen?
RebelIan
says...
9:10pm Thu 6 Sep 12
Jan Lohman
says...
9:28pm Thu 6 Sep 12
CreteJoe wrote:Joezo, best sign up for The Apprentice young man....you're what the producers are looking for!!
If the Lindley Group think it is worth paying out £5.6m to the club it is because they expect to make more than £5.6m over the next four years. Money which will not go to the club, looks like bad business acumen to me.
Holly68
says...
11:03pm Thu 6 Sep 12
Sounds like a good deal, that should cover the "Gap" in the accounts
a1derek
says...
11:22pm Thu 6 Sep 12
Reginald Dwight
says...
11:31pm Thu 6 Sep 12
I stand corrected if i'm wrong but am sure the catering net profit was around £150k a year in the annual accounts so this story is spin from both sides to make it look something it isn't.
One thing is for sure - us fans will be the ones paying the price. The last few years saw the catering improve immensely with huge variation on offer. I would imagine as their tenure unfolds it will be the usual football club trash charged at twice the price served by disengaged jobsworths!
londomollari
says...
1:53am Fri 7 Sep 12
The amount quoted seems startlingly high! Either Duxbury is a genius or, as said previously, there is some exaggeration or spin. To remotely justify such a large payment Lindleys will need to generate high profit margins and a high volume of functions and events.
Without a doubt matchday food and drink charges will rise steeply---or quality will plummet.
Personally, I suspect a strong element of spin
londomollari
says...
1:56am Fri 7 Sep 12
andyhooked
says...
7:16am Fri 7 Sep 12
Chris the Vic
says...
9:12am Fri 7 Sep 12
As I suggested a few weeks back it appears no tender situation existed and whether we may have done better is open to conjecture.
Even with losing Raj we have to be happy and as long as we get the money we should congratulate Scott for a job well done.
Dr,Oftaw
says...
9:40am Fri 7 Sep 12
Casterbridge
says...
9:55am Fri 7 Sep 12
a1derek wrote:And the Squirrel should be cooled (but not chilled) before it goes out on the counter. But at least it's real ale.
If they put a few more decent beers in to entice people to drink in the ground before the game...that would go a long way to increasing match day revenue for a start! The lager this season has been worse than normal - and that's saying something!
Harrydownunder
says...
10:03am Fri 7 Sep 12
This is a good business move (certainly not bad business acumen! Can't believe that negative comment) as it provides guaranteed annuity revenue for 4 years!
Why do people on this site always look for negatives. It is so depressing people.
Can we start banning the negative people from this forum? I for one do not want to read it.
londomollari
says...
10:19am Fri 7 Sep 12
Lindley are to pay 1.4 million a year to Watford. If Watford made a profit of 150 thousand last year, then Lindley will, in effect need to make a profit of 1.55 million to make their payment.
We need to consider where this level of profit comes from---or if the quoted figures are correct. If correct, then either Watford were criminally incompetent in their business, or Lindley are miracle workers.
How many extra events/functions will be needed to generate this profit? (remember, profit, not income). How many price increases?
You don't need to be Stephen Hawking or Alan Sugar to work this out. In fact, the Chuckle Brothers could see this dosn't work out.
Watford Man
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10:32am Fri 7 Sep 12
watford1881
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10:35am Fri 7 Sep 12
stevyweavy
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12:53pm Fri 7 Sep 12
Manic_
says...
11:04pm Fri 7 Sep 12
a1derek wrote:The Vbar needs some work done on it: More seating & tables & it is very cold in winter. Bitter has been pretty good, a decent lager would be nice but the main prob is that if the want people in earlier the then improve the locality.
If they put a few more decent beers in to entice people to drink in the ground before the game...that would go a long way to increasing match day revenue for a start! The lager this season has been worse than normal - and that's saying something!
corbindallas
says...
9:39am Sat 8 Sep 12
davbat
says...
10:42am Sat 8 Sep 12
How do we know we got the best deal?
There was only one Scully
says...
11:08am Sat 8 Sep 12
Not a happy ship still, behind the scenes with this and job losses.
lutondown
says...
11:47am Sat 8 Sep 12
There was only one Scully wrote:Ah here comes the Scotty dog with his usual lack cloud and unwagging tail.
Just to add to all the hurrah for these new caterers, many of the existing staff they have inherited have not been paid to date!
Not a happy ship still, behind the scenes with this and job losses.
Paul Gadd
says...
8:51pm Sun 9 Sep 12
buckler says...
7:27pm Thu 6 Sep 12