The Rugby Football Union and Levy Restaurants UK, the sports, leisure and hospitality sector of Compass Group UK & Ireland are renewing the contracts to continue their joint venture, Twickenham Experience Ltd (TEL).
The partnership provides all match day catering, hospitality and bar services, as well as non-match day catering, conference and event management at Twickenham Stadium and has been in existence since 2000.
£30 million annual revenues
The 10 year contract extension is worth over £30m in annual revenues to the RFU Group; the profits from which facilitates investment back into the game at all levels. The renewed venture will deliver all match day retail and hospitality food and beverage operations for the 82,000 capacity stadium as well as continuing to grow the non match day conference and events business at the venue.
The operational functions of TEL will continue to be supported by Levy Restaurants UK’s sales specialists – Lime Venue Portfolio, the UK’s largest collection of unique, unusual, cultural and sporting venues. Lime Venue will work with the partnership to deliver non match day events and Keith Prowse will continue to promote the match day hospitality sales function.
Investment in catering and hospitality at Twickenham
As part of the RFU’s £76m commitment into creating a state-of-the-art, connected stadium there has been significant investment in the delivery of catering and hospitality services at Twickenham. In the past year 17 public bars at the stadium have been upgraded, there has been continued investment into the West Car Park Fan Village facilities, as well as the latest technologies being incorporated, to ultimately enhance customer experience.
Colin Bailey, Managing Director, sports, leisure and hospitality, Compass Group UK & Ireland said: “As a partnership we have made a considerable investment to the development of facilities and staff at Twickenham. The contract renewal is testament to the partnership we have with the RFU and the commitment we share to delivering an exceptional experience for visitors to the stadium.”
Last year TEL’s public bars and catering units served in excess of 1 million event day guests, at 19 events and over 49,000 hospitality covers catered for on match days. TEL’s non-match day Conference and Events business achieved revenues of £4.5m, with the world class conferencing facilities being utilised for a range of events from small lunch meetings to international conferences, product launches, weddings and awards dinners for over 800 people.
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