Winter 2009/10; 
welcome to the News & Events section.

New Professional Knapsack Sprayers head to UK 

n innovative, durable, budget-friendly knapsack sprayer range offering top quality innovation is entering the UK turf and amenities market thanks to experienced UK distributor DMMP Limited.

Chapin International, the largest manufacturer of sprayers in North America, boasts 125 years of manufacturing, research and development. The company invented and patented the pump sprayer in 1902. 

Chapin is bringing its innovative Chapin Pro Series Knapsack Sprayer to the UK market; a decision which will offer UK buyers the chance to benefit from Chapin’s vast experience, as well as its keen pricing and outstanding value.

The Chapin Pro Series Knapsack Sprayer line has an easy pumping action, quality grips and straps, leak-free no-waste seals and a level of quality and features professionals demand, bringing best value to the UK market. Versatile, the Chapin Pro Series Knapsack Sprayer can be used all year round for all tasks, proving a cost-effective and wise choice for the landscape, turf, amenity or gardening professional. 

Chapin’s strong customer orientation and dedication to excellence in its core US business has resulted in a level of product quality and innovation that the UK market can now benefit from fully. Chapin’s UK distributor and partner in delivering first class service is Leicestershire-based DMMP Limited.

Managing Director of DMMP Limited Marcus Palmer is confident that the UK will welcome the great value and innovation offered by Chapin’s Pro Series Knapsack Sprayer line. He commented: “The UK industry needs a knapsack sprayer that works as hard as it does. The Chapin Pro Series Knapsack Sprayer line is efficient, reliable and robust and has earned its place as a leader in the US market, so I am confident the buyers here will want to reap the benefits of a proven product at a very attractive price.”

Chuck Mattes, Vice President Sales & Marketing of Chapin explained why the US giant has decided to bring this product to the UK market now: “Globally we are all asking more of our products and volume production. The Chapin Pro Series Knapsack Sprayer line delivers value and durability so it will appeal to both the landscape, turf, amenity and gardening professional, as well as the accounts department. Customer care is highly important to us, so we chose to work with DMMP as we knew Marcus Palmer and his team would extend our consumer-focused philosophy into the UK market.”

The Chapin Pro Series Knapsack Sprayer line retails from £79.99 per unit. For more information, please contact Marcus Palmer at DMMP Limited on Tel: +44 (0)845 643 9776 or visit: www.dmmp.com

Sports Retail and Food Strategy

ho ate all the couscous?” is a chant that should no longer be required at stadia and entertainment venues in 2010. As the food offering in these facilities is initially architecturally driven, then lease driven, to achieve an improved food offering a food plan must be created from the outset; or at least early enough to influence the architecture of the venue. The plan also needs to extend beyond food and include all other appropriate retail.

To originate a plan, venue managers and operators must start by answering the following: ‘What is the venue use for?’ (i.e. is it sport-specific or multi-use); ‘Who is the audience/s?’; and ‘How will the venue be used?’

The vast majority of venue operators recognise the financial benefits of food and retail, and also the associated amenity benefits, but rarely execute the food plan well; this is because they are not retailers or caterers. Contract catering in the work place has improved dramatically in the last few years. Now it is the turn for international sports venues to literally ‘up’ their food and retail game.

CADA Design Group works hard with its food brand clients to deliver on speed of service; with handheld food and product consistency for market environments that have ‘peaky’ footfall. Many of these brands are working exceptionally well (often under license), in venues such as ExCel and The O2 Arena in London, UK.

There should be no impediment to a suite of complimentary branded offers being brought together in sports venues. To develop the detail behind a sports food plan, a usage pattern is key. Crowd dynamics is also a well developed tool, which can aid food placement and indeed measure the effect that it has on crowd flow. One of the dilemmas for food placement is that locations for peak use may not be the appropriate locations during ‘normal’ venue conditions. This is an issue for consideration in the early planning stages. 

In the last few years huge leaps have been made in micro catering. CADA Design Group’s work with Pret A Manger, Square Pie, and Bagel Factory for example, has created catering footprints as small as 10sqm capable of delivering huge amounts of food very quickly. The good news is that they are portable and relatively low cost. This means that the food plan can be scalable and avoid the stadium appearing ‘half shut’ during non-peak periods.

Audience characteristics need to be considered too. The food demands for a Beyoncé concert will be different to those for a Lakers game. Rather than pushing a generic food offer onto the audience, consider product pull. Ask what do they want? Then give it to them. This can be done in a variety of ways through guest brands, sponsored special appearances, or most simply working with the food team to tailor the menu frameworks accordingly. Why does this rarely happen? Two reasons: too much effort; and the fear of one-off costs. The truth is by responding to market pull, more food will be sold to more people.

Product and price hierarchy is the next topic. The easy win is to sell a restricted, easy to prepare, high margin menu at the same price across the whole stadium. Economies of scale and simplicity make this approach attractive. However, look to street food and particularly Asian street food to see how much variety can be created from a few simple ingredients. This leads on to food trends. What are people eating and how much are they paying for it? This flexibility in planning price and product will reap dividends. 

Price hierarchy and margin contribution are a hot topic. If food deals are straight forward fixed price leases there are no incentives on either side to drive trade. Nor are there incentives to pursue high margin products such as juices and smoothies.

Many brands have well articulated event solutions (pop ups is the new vernacular) — certain champagne houses come to mind. Their presence is a win-win all round; customer benefit, brand profile and revenue. But these spaces need consideration in the food plan. They need to be interruptive but not obstructive. 

A well considered and well executed food plan needs to be constantly monitored. Is it delivering to its agreed criteria? This is not just a revenue issue but from a customer’s point of view it is all about quality and value. Don’t be afraid to mystery shop your food offers.

The question is how often should the food plan be reviewed? An annual check is a good idea; not only as an internal review, but a market review also. Check what is happening in the market as a whole and ask are our offers still relevant and what innovations should we be considering.

The food plan cannot be considered in isolation from the retail plan. If we parallel stadiums with shopping centres and airports, the food and retail mix and placement is carefully integrated to increase dwell time and increase spend. The same criteria apply to retail as to food, however there are some factors that need consideration that are utterly unique to stadia. Premier league football stores can process up to 6,000 replica shirt sales in the 90 minutes before a match. Each shirt is selected, printed and paid for — 18,000 processes in an hour and a half. This informs the architecture of the store, its position at the venue and its non matchday use and appearance.

Nike have tried to extend product ranges in their stadia stores however the reality is that non-food retail is largely souvenirs, replica products and memorabilia. This is partly due to the mindset of the customer. Apart from amenity retail this is unlikely to change unless the stadium is part of a larger leisure of mixed use development. If it is, it obviously fundamentally alters the food and retail plan. The concept of pop ups for food has been mentioned, but it is worth considering for retail. There is a current retailer appetite for low cost short term retail concepts. Could Top Shop and New Look be persuaded to do a pop up for the aforementioned Beyoncé gig? Probably, if the deal is right. 

Above: Food kiosk unit for transitory spaces.

CADA’s earliest involvement in the stadia business was in the eighties with the Superstadia consortium — a team set up in the wake of the various disasters earlier in the decade to create the all-seater stadia we take for granted today. Even then in the eighties we were advocating crowd management through amenity planning — a topic that is still as pertinent today. If the food plan is developed early enough in the process it can have a beneficial contributing effect on crowd dynamics. The food plan needs to be thought about as a three dimensional entity. It is scalable, flexible, always current, continually monitored, delivering quality and value (and not just for the corporate hospitality). Such a food plan can then be articulated through a design process complimentary to the hard architecture with sufficient elasticity to take whatever future trends throw at it.

In 2008 Delaware North received an award for innovation and excellence in their food offer at the Emirates Stadium. This should be the norm not an exception. There are a myriad of awards for excellence in food in all sectors yet it appears to be a token gesture in the stadia business. A pathfinder approach is required. From Singapore to Brazil, 21st century stadia are being constructed. Do they have fully integrated food and retail plans?

Let’s hope that we can sit and watch the action without the Portuguese or Chinese equivalent of “who ate all the pies” ringing in our ears!

CADA Design Group is an international brand and retail design consultancy, specialising in British design excellence with an international outlook. The London-based studios provide strategic consulting, fresh thinking and creative design expertise to a national and international portfolio of clients including Nike, Harrods, Dean & Deluca, Delhi Airport, Cardiff Airport, Galeries Lafayette, Harvey Nichols and INTERSPORT. CADA Design Group has over 60 years experience between the team and clients in 28 countries.

For further information please contact Gavin Gooddy via email at: gavin.gooddy@cada.co.uk or Tel: +44 (0)20 7234 9700.