Pembroke College, Oxford

Having had a previous relationship with a Catering Engineering Company, who sadly went out of business, Kevin, Executive Chef at Pembroke College, knew that their existing dishwasher was on its last legs and had to be replaced urgently. In addition to other employee responsibilities, it was proving impossible to clean 1000+ dishes, pots and pans to a hygienic standard, as well as maintain their current output and quality of food.

Kevin came across BFES online and we were more than happy to arrange a site visit and discuss possible solutions. We even invited Kevin and his team to come and view the dishwasher area previously installed at Bedales School. Here Kevin could ask the catering team at Bedales how they found the system and working with us. Following this meeting, Kevin invited BFES to undertake the project.

The biggest issue we faced was that the historic building had very narrow hallways and low ceilings. Due to the heritage that accompanies Pembroke College, it’s no surprise that the Grade II listed building hasn’t been hugely renovated to allow the free movement of large pieces of industrial equipment. BFES put together a coherent project management document – even indicating the path the dishwasher needed to take, in order to make the process as easy and manageable as possible. One of our engineers said the task was like, “moving around in a hobbit hole” which was rather apt considering J. R. R. Tolkien was a notable fellow of Pembroke College! He even wrote The Hobbit and the first two parts of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy during his time here.