06 July 2012
Award winning venue and event caterers, Amadeus, strengthens its team for ambitious plans ahead; today the company announces the appointment of its Managing Director, as well as a new Food & Beverage Director and an Operations Manager for External Events.
Kevin Watson, (pictured) formerly Operations Director at Amadeus is now heading up the business as Managing Director, responsible for all venues and events including the Olympics project. Kevin joined Amadeus in 2011 and “has already brought sound commercial, operational, retail and general business process to the organisation,” said Paul Thandi, CEO of the NEC Group, Amadeus’ parent company.
Paul continued: “We’re delighted to have Kevin on board; his experience, coupled with his energy and enthusiasm will drive Amadeus forward, continuing to push the boundaries in catering excellence.”
Speaking of his appointment, Kevin said: “Amadeus is a great business, with a great product that is definitely going places and I’m over the moon to be taking on this role. I’m ready for the challenges and I know I have a fantastic team behind me.
“I’m now looking forward to motoring ahead with our ambitious plans to turn over more than £50m per year by delivering world class catering on a global stage, as well as opening several new contracts and growing our home venues, whilst not forgetting to have some fun with the team along the way!”
Kevin brings with him over 15 years’ experience of retail, contract catering, retail catering and budget hotels both nationally and internationally including roles within Compass Catering and Roadchef. Kevin will also join the Executive Board of the NEC Group.
The newly created role of Food & Beverage Director has been taken up by Marc Frankl – a hospitality expert with 19 years’ experience of working in the industry from hotels through to specialist consultancy and purchasing, most recently having worked at ITradeNetwork Limited, where he was a Senior Procurement Manager.
Marc has been brought on board to review the supply chain and manage the purchasing processes and procedures, balancing creativity with a commercial edge. He will also be focussed on product development and menu innovation working closely with the Amadeus award winning culinary teams.
“Amadeus has a leading culinary team, and to support that I’ll be focused on extracting income and growing sales in order to achieve our targets,” said Marc.
“We will work smart to source the best products and the best prices without affecting the service, the product, or our innovation.”
Marc will work closely with the General Managers of the venues as well as the operations managers for external events, including the newly appointed Amanda Fletcher.
Amanda, will have sole responsibility for all of Amadeus’ external events including the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and the Scottish Open. She will be growing existing business as well as securing new external event opportunities for Amadeus.
Previously Amanda spent nine years with the Lindley Group, as General Manager of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club in addition to being part of the mobilisation/support team for football, racing and rubgy events and venues across the group, and brings a wealth of management experience including specialist roles in training, recruitment and most recently trained in transactional analysis.
As a business within the NEC Group Amadeus has more than 36 years’ experience and is focused on investing in its people and development of their talent. It recently recognised 90 of its employees who, between them, have achieved long service recognition of 1,420 years of service to the company.