A very impressive Heritage

GIVEN the historical significance of the stable of Lothian venues it’s associated with, the name Heritage Portfolio could have been a carefully crafted marketing ploy.

With Hopetoun House, Merchant’s Hall, Oxenfoord Castle, the Royal College of Physicians and the Mansfield Traquair Centre among its "entertainment" venues, the moniker seems justified.

But the catering group bearing the name came about more by accident than design when two of Edinburgh’s leading independent catering companies, Heritage Hospitality and Portfolio Catering, walked down the corporate aisle last month in a "strategic" marriage.

Portfolio, headed by Mark Miller, was the older of the two groups, having been founded in 1993.

Heritage was founded in January this year by Chris Robinson, the former head of Wheatsheaf catering and current chief executive of Hearts.

As well as Mr Miller and chairman Mr Robinson - who is not involved in the day-to-day running of the operation - the enlarged company’s executive team includes Ian D’Annunzio-Green, a former regional operations manger for catering giant Sodexho Prestige, and Alan Duff, who helped develop and manage Wheatsheaf’s raft of venues, such as Edinburgh Castle, Culzean Castle and the Royal Museum of Scotland, as chief executive. The team has a total of 80 years’ experience in the catering industry.

Mr Duff believes the venues where Heritage Portfolio is the preferred or nominated catering supplier is down to owners "buying into the team’s lengthy experience".

"Essentially we were a start-up company, having only launched in January, and the basic problem with start-ups is that people look at them and think they’ll probably not be around in three or six months’ time," he says.

But in March, Heritage secured its first client - Hopetoun House.

"Ten days later we were catering for 850 people at one event," says Mr Duff. "That was the confidence Hopetoun House’s management team had in the ability and track record of the Heritage Hospitality team."

And within weeks of snapping up Hopetoun, the trustees at Mansfield Traquair were forging links with Heritage as they pushed their famous venue - known as Edinburgh’s Sistine Chapel because of the Phoebe Traquair murals that adorn its walls - towards the corporate eventing market.

With the number of catering companies hunting business from the corporate sector increasing, competition is fierce.

With this in mind, Heritage, eyeing rival Portfolio’s range of plush venues - including the Signet Library, the Royal College of Surgeons and the revamped Musselburgh racecourse - approached Mr Miller to chat about the possibilities of staging joint events. But the exploratory talks inadvertently led to a full merger.

Mr Duff says: " Heritage was looking to do a number of joint events with Portfolio. We knew them, they knew us, which is the nature of the business here in Scotland.

"They had a number of the venues we had on our target list and we wanted to see if we could share events and our common expertise. We got chatting, realised that we could both benefit from the infrastructures we had and realised we’d fit well together."

But the talks also pointed to a dilemma.

"They led us to realise that as individual companies we were going to be competing head to head," explains Mr Duff. "We thought: ‘Do we slug it out, or join forces?’

"We were both strong companies but together we’d be slightly stronger and in a position to challenge some of the more established players."

With competition from the likes of Le Bistro - the Edinburgh catering group founded by Liz McAreavy and sold in 2001 to a firm owned by ex-Rangers chairman David Murray - the enlarged Heritage Portfolio is now ranked among Lothian’s leading caterers.

"We’d like to think we’re up there, but there are a lot of good small niche companies out there and we’ll need to keep our eye on what they’re up to," says Mr Duff. "Heritage" venues are not the firm’s sole venues, but they are is its speciality area.

Mr Duff says: "Between us, we know these types of properties well and the unique challenges they provide.

"For instance, the kitchen may not be in a good place, access may be poor, or ventilation or air conditioning may not be ideal."

One of the areas Heritage Portfolio will "have a long hard look at" is its offering to the "eat in" corporate market. Mr Duff says: "The last time there was a recession we saw a number of companies switch from going out to entertain clients, to entertaining on their own site.

"Portfolio has a decent business in this area and we’ll now look to add a bit of spin and creativity to that."

"We don’t have a standard menu," says Mr Duff. "We create individual menus for individual clients. Part of that will be offering a wide range of local Scottish produce."

With the range of top-end venues at its disposal, it’s not surprising to find the company pitching itself at corporate clients.

And while that side will continue to form the bulk of its revenue, the private function market is equally important, Mr Duff says. "People having weddings are mad keen for prestige properties. As well as companies wanting to out-entertain each other in the battle for business, there’s a competitiveness among people getting married too - they want to go one better than their friends." And despite the corporate belt-tightening firms are still spending on entertainment, in a bid to win client favour and cement business relationships, Mr Duff says. "Companies are still entertaining, but instead of entertaining 300 people they’re doing it for 150 people. For the same budget they’re getting a much more personalised occasion."

And he adds: "People are not just buying a dinner, they are buying into style as well. Few catering firms outside central London have taken that on board and it’s something that we will be working quite hard on."

For one recent event the firm studied the Milan fashion show and used next season’s colours. And while enjoying business from several FTSE-100 heavyweights, Heritage Portfolio is also expecting to see strong revenues from Europe and the United States.

The company recently catered for a party for Spain’s leading business newspaper, and also for the Young Presidents’ Organisation - an American group only open to corporate whizz kids.

Growth, albeit "controlled" growth "in areas of expertise" is on the cards. But Mr Duff has no desire to see Heritage Portfolio become a catering "giant" in the mould of his former employer Sodexho Prestige.

" They’re huge, with operations in 70 countries. But, with the best will in the world, you lose something when you get to be that size. We’ve no desire to be anything like that level. We’re looking to be different