Retail & Specialist


Following a successful pilot stage, National Trust (Enterprises) Ltd has offered FDH a contract to install proVISION across their major sites. Despite a difficult year for the National Trust, with many venues hit by the effects of the foot and mouth crisis, the targeted improvement in margin was achieved.

The extensive pilot began with sites in Kent and Sussex last year and was then rolled out to sites in each of the National Trusts 10 regions. Many of the National Trusts largest restaurants were chosen for the pilot, including those at Llanhydrock in Cornwall, Dunham Massey near Manchester and Blickling Hall in Norfolk. The restaurants include self-service and waitress-service outlets, some of which have an annual turnover in excess of £100,000.

proVISION was selected from a short-list of five options. Following a period of intensive training, the software was installed early in 2001, with network links to the head office at Melksham in Wiltshire, where a central system controls electronic point-of-sale equipment and pricing. The pilot came to an end in October, and its successful completion was followed by Board approval to roll the system out across the entire operation.

Paul Vickers, The National Trust Catering Manager, explains why proVISION was chosen, and how it has benefited their business:

"We offer a wide range of home-made historic and regionally produced dishes in our restaurants. Local implementation of proVISION ™ supports our policy of purchasing from regional suppliers, while also allowing central co-ordination of all outlets. Our experience is that the system is user-friendly and has helped us improve the control of our gross margin and improve our profit contribution to the works of the Trust.

We have been very pleased with the support we received from FDH. We required a number of changes to the system over the pilot project and FDH were very helpful in tailoring the system to meet our requirements. We have been most impressed by the quality of support we have received and their level of understanding about the catering business and are confident that they will play an important part in helping the continued roll out across the organisation in 2002/03 ."

Download case study in PDF format (requires Adobe Acrobat)

Case Study Home