The Big Al’s Foodservice range of flame-cooked burgers provides a simple, worry-free way to offer bulk food on match days. Stadia are turning to Big Al’s to provide a range of burgers that provide a consistently great-tasting range. Big Al’s burgers are pre- cooked over an open flame meaning a delicious taste is guaranteed every time. The products are frozen which reduces waste and they require minimal equipment and time to prepare. Leeds United Football Club sells on average 896 Big Al’s 6oz Big Eat Beefburgers in the stadium’s 38 food kiosks each home game.
Jonathan Slape, Ground Catering Manager attributes this to the quality and convenience of the product: “Big Al’s products are very easily prepared enabling our team of kitchen staff to deliver consistently great-tasting products quickly, which is obviously critical on a match day.
“Big Al’s suit our needs perfectly and are the best quality beefburger we have used within the stadium concourse environment. I’d recommend them to any catering manager looking for a new burger product.”
Football fans at Bolton Wanderers’ stadium have had nothing but praise for Big Al’s Burgers.
“It was recommended that we give Big Al’s a try – and we’ve never looked back,” says Ben Gleaves, Public Catering Manager. “Today, the only comments we ever get are how good the burgers are.”
During football matches, Big Al’s burgers, along with pies, chicken wraps and hot dogs, are served from the stadium’s 17 kiosks and four booths.
Ben’s top tip is to keep the burgers ready in a foil bag for half time.
“We put the assembled burgers in foil bags, and it works perfectly,” says Ben. “Even on a cold day, the burgers stay warm until the customers have got back to their seats.”
Big Al’s point of sale material assists significantly with sales, Ben says.
“Breaking habits can be difficult with football fans,” he says. “Many fans will come to a match and have the same pint that they have always had – so a price list just saying ‘cheeseburger’ isn’t enough to tempt them. But when we put up colourful, hanging signs picturing the burgers our sales were boosted rapidly. Burgers are now as popular as hot dogs, whereas it used to be a ratio of about four to one.”
There is another side to the stadium: it also hosts events such as exhibitions, concerts and other spectator sports, where the burgers are served in a different way.
“The burgers are served completely differently at these events,” says Ben. “We serve them from a unit on the concourse, keeping them warm on a hot plate and assembling them to order in front of the customer with cheese, salad, bacon or onions. We can charge around £4.30 for a burger, compared with £3.20 at a football match.”
The venue sells around 1,000 burgers during a football match, with an impressive profit margin of 68%.
