Case Study

Millbrook Primary School has 500 pupils on role. The kitchen produces meals not just for the pupils and staff at Millbrook, but also for another 10 schools in the area and so have many challenges to face.

Christophe Rondelot, Head Chef at Global Cafe says:

“Global Cafe has been working with IHM for over 6 years. It has been a great partnership from the start. Inhouse Manager offers multiple solutions to the everyday running of a busy kitchen. All Inhouse Manager staff are very professional and helpful at all times. My job as Head chef is very demanding but with Inhouse Manager on board I can focus on the most important side of the business, which is cooking. I always feel in control with the support of Inhouse Manager. I personally believe Inhouse Manager is the perfect company within the cost sector industry, and I would recommend them to anybody in the catering sector”

All meals are prepared in the school kitchen by the Global Café catering team. The school menu focuses on seasonal produce and localised suppliers of fresh produce. Since the free school meals were introduced their meal uptakes have increased by 100% and are now averaging 1200 lunches per day. There is a 5-week menu in place that changes every term, and the menu is used in all the schools which are served by Global Café, with

adjustments made upon specific requests made by individual units. A further evidence of their quality is a recently awarded Food for Life bronze medal.

The meals are prepared daily and then transported locally using temperature controlled trolleys. Food temperature-recording sheets, produced within Inhouse Manager, are used to ensure that meals arrive to their destination in required temperature and can be audited by health & safety inspectors.

Prior to working with Inhouse Manager, the school challenges were mainly to do with cost-control, meal-ordering from other schools, admin time spent on ordering and invoice processing as well as inconsistent food production.

Inhouse Manager has been used at Millbrook since 2010 and has brought significant improvements to their operation:

  • Fixed price per person per day
  • Meals ordered by each school individually in timely manner
  • Daily production sheets making the food preparation process seamless and consistent
  • Automated purchasing which has freed up the chef’s time
  • One weekly invoice for the entire school = a great admin-time reduction and invoice processing saving

For more information about how Inhouse Manager can support your catering operation, please contact us on 0333 123 6987 or email us at

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