Lindley Venue Catering, the specialist sports stadia catering division of The Lindley Group, has extended its partnership with Derby County Football Club to operate and expand the Starbucks store located within the Pride Park Stadium for a further five years.
The partnership, which was initially struck in October 2007 and saw the creation of around 20 new jobs when the Starbucks store opened, has been extended through to 2017.
Under the newly extended licensing agreement, the highly successful store will continue to be operated by Lindley Venue Catering in line with Starbucks brand guidelines, and agreement has been reached with Derby County Football Club to expand the store’s seating capacity by opening up an area to the rear of the store as a ‘business lounge’ for informal business meetings and through introducing more external fixed seating.
Lindley Venue Catering and Derby County Football Club have also collaborated to develop a loyalty incentive scheme which aims to reward the club’s season ticket holders whilst increasing patronage of the Starbucks store.
Starbucks will continue provide products such as coffee, food and merchandise as well as training, operational and marketing support for the store, which opens seven days a week and serves visitors to the retail park, the stadium and the extensive conference facilities at the Pride Park complex.
Adam Elliott, The Lindley Group’s CEO, says: “The collaboration between Derby County Football Club, Starbucks and Lindley broke new ground in 2007 as the Starbucks store at Pride Park was the first to be opened in a European football stadium and it has proved to be a tremendous success for all parties involved. So we are naturally delighted to have the opportunity to continue working with Starbucks and the club to expand and enhance the facilities even further.
“As part of its development plans for Pride Park, Derby County was seeking to improve the facilities not only for fans, but also for the increasing number of people who use the facilities at the stadium on a daily basis. We are extremely proud that over the past five years, the Starbucks at Pride Park has become established as a social hub for a broad range of customers. As well as attracting families and mums meeting up for a coffee or lunch, the Starbucks store is used extensively by local business people for catch-up meetings throughout the day. Indeed the popularity of the location with business users has prompted us to create a separate area equipped with free wi-fi to serve primarily, but not exclusively, as a business lounge.”
John Vicars, Vice President of Operations at Derby County Football Club, adds: “I am delighted that the Club has been able to renew the current arrangement with Lindley Catering and Starbucks for a further five years. Without question Starbucks at Pride Park has been a tremendous success and has developed into one of the most popular meeting places within the city. We are committed to working with Lindley Venue Catering over the term of the new agreement to continually grow the business and are also looking forward to introducing a loyalty scheme for all our season ticket holders in the near future”.