The history of Cornwall Catering Excellence

Cornwall Catering Excellence was born out of the frustration felt by Stephen Brown, Ian Jolly and Ian Doble that local companies were often overlooked, particularly by the public sector at the time. They saw contracts being awarded to their national competitors often without even being asked to tender. It was decided that co-operative marketing, initially in the form of a joint catering exhibition was the way forward and Cornwall Catering 2000 was born and held its first exhibition at Carn Brea Leisure Centre on the 27th and 28th October 1993.

The aim of the organisation has always been to show that local companies can compete on price and service with our national competitors. CCE has promoted the benefits to the Cornish Economy of local supply from the very beginning when this was not a popular concept and has promoted the use of Cornish Food and Drink both at its exhibitions and the “Cornish Challenge” that it runs. The member companies practice what they preach by sourcing their own goods and services locally wherever this can be economically viable. They are all locally owned and with the exception of Cornwall College are family businesses. This has resulted in two companies having to leave the group but others have joined to make us the strong group you see before you today. The member businesses aim to be “complimentary but non-competing” and so cannot be open to all of the companies that wish to join them. Membership however is not closed and there are some interested companies waiting in the wings so watch this space!

As well as promoting each other and local supply the member companies have a keen interest in “putting something back” into the industry which is their trade and raising standards in the Cornish Hospitality Industry. Many of the members individually sponsor categories in the annual Cornwall Tourism Awards as well as jointly running the Cornish Challenge. CCE has also identified a need to encourage more young people to look more carefully at the career opportunities in the hospitality industry in Cornwall and thus has for the last two years been developing the “Better Careers in Catering” initiative and are delighted that this has received the national recognition it deserves through winning the Springboard Award for best regional training initiative.