thomas land final approved case study 220515

Recently Garners FSE were delighted to a�end the official

opening of Drayton Manor Theme Park’s £3.5m expansion

of Europe’s only Thomas Land™, as part of the park’s on-

going 65th year anniversary celebra.ons.

Expanding by over 40% on the original Thomas Land™

which opened in 2008, Garners FSE were involved at the

earliest stages of the project to design the commercial

catering facili.es at the main a�rac.on, Sodor Airport.

As The General Catering Manager for Drayton Manor Marc

Tierney says, “despite the ini.al brief being fairly vague, the

original architects’ drawings changing on a few occasions

and the brief then developing throughout the project,

Garners FSE were 100% accurate in both interpre.ng our

own ideas and offering us viable solu.ons.

Being a family business, Drayton Manor Park had ideas

coming from all areas and Garners FSE managed to

overcome obstacles such as structural changes mid

project.” Marc praised our project lead Tim’s “ability to

think on the spot” and to do this with a “can do a<tude.”

The result of this approach and a<tude is a superb catering

facility with the look and feel of a high-end coffee bar,

complete with durable and stylish granite topped servery

counters and a “mirrored” twin flow servery style.

Customers are filtered from the central grab “n” go counter

to two barista coffee units, via interchangeable hot or cold

display cabinets, dependent on the season. By filtering the

customers this way, queuing and service .mes are kept to

the minimum.

All the Paninis, sandwiches, other light snacks and

deliciously temp.ng cakes are prepared and supported by

the facility’s back of house pantry and dedicated dishwash

facility. Manufactured in Britain are the Heritage

Induc.on Hobs; two MerryChef Combi/Convec.on

Microwaves and Ra.onal Ovens are the main food

produc.on units. We arranged all the training for the

staff, including the two specialist Barista units and pre-

installa.on cooking trials, further enhancing our reputa.on

as going the extra mile for all of our clients.

It is this high-end finish that Marc and his team are

par.cularly proud of as he says: “from our CEO to the

paying public, the feedback has been excep.onal and we

have been blown away by the response. It would have

been easy to jus.fy not spending the addi.onal money on

the quality equipment and finishes but we are glad that we

did!” Furthermore, our facility has created a brand new

revenue stream and has complimented the exis.ng

catering facili.es we also designed and installed across

both Thomas Land™ and the Theme Park in general.

As Marc concludes,

“we will not hesitate in approaching Garners FSE

for our future plans or recommend them to anyone

else.”

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