All commercial kitchens are unique. From a servicing point of view, this means the challenge is finding the right solution for each customer while delivering ongoing value. To simplify, I broadly divide Baker Group’s offering into four buckets: the repair and maintenance of gas and electric cooking equipment, full scope asset management for large venues, remote site services and supporting suppliers on equipment, whether this is under or outside warranty.
Clearly there is overlap here but combining these customer relationships built over time with our national presence and consolidated service offering has allowed us to move seamlessly between industries. Our onshore and offshore remote site work will need an article all to itself so here I’ll look in more detail at Baker Group’s support of commercial kitchens in restaurants and stadiums, and on behalf of suppliers.
How Baker Group helped Nando’s streamline kitchen maintenance
Baker Group partnered with Nando’s in June 2024, but we had been speaking to them for a couple of years before winning their business. From those initial conversations it was evident that their key stress point was from dealing with multiple contractors and suppliers around the country. The challenge was ongoing coordination and communication with what was sometimes multiple issues at a single site. Given that they operate in 120 locations, we were tasked with providing a single point of contact and delivering cost savings by consolidating repairs and maintenance to a single team.
We began by putting a planning schedule in place that ensured we would have enough resources to manage the contract. As a rule, we tend to work a bit heavy in terms of resources, meaning we over-allocate technicians at the start to ensure we can meet any request without diluting our service level. Nando’s don’t require full time, onsite support so we focus on repairs and scheduled maintenance of their gas and electrical equipment. With 120 stores nationally, this works out to at least 1 or 2 jobs per state, per day.
By setting up a schedule, spreading it out over a year to manage resources and sharing it with the client, everyone has access to the service plan for each asset. Our feedback from Nando’s has been that their kitchen maintenance has become much more efficient now that they no longer have to juggle multiple contractors or plan extra service calls. We also work directly with their OEM suppliers to ensure top-quality servicing, which keeps their kitchens running smoothly and costs down.
How Suncorp Stadium gets more value from its commercial kitchens
We had previously supported stadiums through the warranty periods of new equipment, but Suncorp was the first stadium we approached with a full scope management proposal. This was a great learning curve for us as a business because while we had experience with high-capacity venues like stadiums and convention centres, we needed to come up with a bespoke service offering that showed we understood their specific operational needs.
We were able to access Suncorp to experience the site, review the condition of all equipment, the type of cooking being done and servicing protocols, which allowed us to pitch our suggestions as a formal proposal. While some stadiums are quite seasonal and maintenance work can be carried out in the off-season, large stadiums like Suncorp have one to two major events per week all year round. To save the client money, we proposed a two day a week structure. Practically, this means we have two technicians at Suncorp two days a week, so if a breakdown happens over the weekend during an event, then they know we’re going to be there on Tuesday to repair it.
Fixing assets mid-service is usually quite inefficient because we might take up too much space or need to turn off other equipment. Far better for staff to use back-up cooking equipment on the weekend, knowing that we’re always onsite post event and again later in the week. This allows us the flexibility to cover breakdown works, installations or moving equipment around but also to send in more technicians to stay on top of the maintenance schedule when required. From a resourcing perspective, each stadium is different with varying requirements and our ability to adapt to these has been key.
Working with equipment suppliers on warranties and technician training
We work with multiple OEM suppliers, but Unox is a good example of how we manage installations and breakdowns, both during and post warranty. The key difference with this area of our business is that while we have a target market for direct clients, we will support suppliers wherever their products are sold and for the full lifecycle, be it under warranty or post warranty.
Through our close relationships with Unox state managers we have been able to support them with major clients. While our national presence gives us scale, it is often though our local knowledge that we can support their retail clients. From a servicing point of view this allows us to monitor the service life of commercial kitchen equipment, ensure it is being properly used and ensure both the OEM and end client are satisfied.
From experience, we want to support our suppliers in any way we can, but there’s a certain level of support we expect from them in return to ensure alignment. They hold regular online training sessions for Baker Group technicians and are regularly available for in-person training sessions. Basic OEM training is available for new technicians while advanced technical training is offered to our more experienced technicians. We will often fly technicians to a central location instead of holding multiple sessions all around the country.
How Baker Group is planning ahead
On the surface it may seem that the needs of commercial kitchens should be largely the same. But this simply isn’t the case. The daily or weekly demands of a commercial restaurant are very different to those of a modern stadium. Australia’s geographic challenges make supplier relationships crucial to both managing technician workflow and staying up to date with the focused and detailed training on the latest equipment.
