April 4, 2013
CEO Newsletter
We have great news to share! As customary with key company developments, we wanted you to be the first to have the facts. At our annual conference we indicated that we were going global and had entered into an agreement to acquire a large European food and beverage company. Since then many in our Hospitality Support Center have worked tirelessly to complete the necessary due diligence which is now complete.
I am pleased to announce that we have financed and acquired The Lindley Group and invite you to watch our video release. Lindley is based in the United Kingdom and provides services to more than 40 venues. Their book of business mirrors ours in many ways with 27 soccer, 4 cricket, 4 racing, 3 rugby and 8 heritage venues along with the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London—The Making of Harry Potter. In the UK, the Lindley Group name resonates as the hospitality leader, much like we do in North America, and therefore we will retain the name for our UK business. We are also happy to report that no staff reductions or personnel changes are expected as a result of this acquisition. Both Centerplate and The Lindley Group will continue operating with their current names and marks.
Over the next several weeks we will be welcoming Lindley management and employees, approximately 10,000 strong, to the Centerplate family. Adam Elliott, President, Tim Doubleday, CFO, Jon Davies, CMO, Gary Bates, Corporate Chef and other senior members of the Lindley team will be visiting several of our locations with the plan to quickly share best practices and ideas for driving further growth.
It is with great pleasure that I announce Jeff Tandberg has been named to lead the operations integration of Lindley, working alongside Adam Elliott and his leadership team. As the integration moves forward I am confident that additional roles will be identified and others in our enterprise will be deployed. Already we are moving forward with new business opportunities and are bidding on a major sports deal in France so stay tuned for further news.
We will shortly be issuing the attached press release and sending an email to our clients with this exciting news.
We have gone global. I am thrilled. I hope you are and trust me; this is still the warm-up act.
Onwards!
Andrew Pollard April 5, 2013 at 1:43 pm
Great news Des!
Well done… finally we aren’t the only people spelling CentRE properly!!
Andrew