Size matters: How to maintain operational excellence at scale

Have a strong vision from the top

“Keeping it as simple as possible is the most important thing,” says Paul Jackson, managing director at Searcys, winner of the 2025 Foodservice Caterer Award.

He says a clear vision and strong values must run through every part of the business to ensure consistency. For example, centralising food preparation helps maintain quality and reduces pressure on individual sites.

Sarah Wren, winner of the 2025 Public Service Caterer Award, is chief executive of Health and Independent Living Support, the largest not-for-profit meals-on-wheels provider in the UK. She highlights the importance of building strategic partnerships with organisations that share your values to strengthen and sustain services, which is essential as a large company. For example, by leveraging economies of scale, the business can keep meal pricing affordable and in 2024 posted a record-breaking year, with 800,000 meals delivered to 7,600 people, along with over 12,800 tea and breakfast packs provided to vulnerable individuals.

For James Elliot, co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims and winner of the 2025 Restaurateur of the Year – Group Catey, large-scale operations are “big, beautiful machines” that have the size to deliver on goals and promises, enabling it to “grow with soul and with purpose”.

The co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims started the business as a market stall in London’s Soho with his brother Thom in 2012 and they now operate 30 restaurants across the UK. As the high street pizza chain expanded, it was able to work towards B Corp certification as well as improving its training, development and investment in people.

“It’s a complicated world out there to run restaurants, but actually, sometimes, scale is the thing that’s needed to help you deliver all those promises,” he says.

Don’t forget your people

Elliot says that often success at scale comes down to people. “Great, happy teams make great restaurants,” he says.

He rejects the idea that growth weakens standards: “Growth isn’t a shorthand for reduced quality. Over the past 12 years, Pizza Pilgrims has got better every year. As you get bigger, your resources grow. You can invest more in training, development and equipment, and that raises standards.” 

Another result of growth is more staff: “Employing, developing and looking after people in a meaningful way is a never-ending job,” he adds.

Jackson says that the real value in winning a Catey lies in what it does for the business’s people. In a landscape that has been “extremely challenging in so many different ways”, recognition provides reassurance that the business is making the right decisions. Winning gives teams a vital morale boost and reinforces the resilience they show every day to stay creative and find new ways to respond to pressures, while continuing to deliver for clients and guests.

Take time to celebrate

For Jackson, the process of entering the Cateys was as valuable as the award itself. Too often, he says, businesses move quickly from one challenge to the next without recognising what they have achieved, so while writing the nomination, he encourages nominees to reflect on the “great stuff” delivered in the past year by teams.

Wren says the key is authenticity. She says nominees should tell a clear and honest story about the human difference made every day through work, of shining a light on the teams “at the heart of that success”, as well as being clear about what makes the service distinctive when delivering at scale.

Nominate a business for a Catey today

We love to hear about how large businesses are taking advantage of their economic and people power to make positive changes. Share your stories and you too could be lifting an award at the ceremony in July.