1995   25 Years   2020 

July 4, 2020

We're celebrating Clarion Group's quarter century of providing solutions and uncovering opportunities in dining and hospitality services.

Take a look at our prior years' posts below.  You may find something that's useful today. 

What will business be like when (almost) no one’s in the office?

July 1, 2020
“The office has lost top billing as the place where white-collar work gets done,” proclaimed a pair of tech executives, writing in The Wall Street Journal and quoted in the Summer 2020 issue of Dining Insights’ lead article, “Planning Dining Service in the Post-Virus Era”.  

From March through June – and in varying degrees beyond – companies and institutions have been kept alive by executives, managers and many others working from home offices and kitchen tables.

“Newly remote employees will soon begin to see that productivity, innovation and creativity remain strong, if not stronger, under the new conditions,” according to Matt Burr, CEO, and Becca Endicot, editor, of Nomadic Learning, a digital training company.  “Organizations will learn that they benefit tremendously from losing the limitations that come from traditional office settings.” (nomadiclearning.com)

Maybe.  That’s pretty much what advocates of the open office were saying some ten or twelve years ago, before it became apparent that an open office left no place for someone to concentrate on a specific task.  (That’s one of the pluses to working at home.  No one except the spouse, kids and dog can bother you.)

The other side, not yet acknowledged by remote-working promoters, is the loss of what open offices were designed to encourage – casual encounters and informal face-to-face discussions where ideas are aired and new initiative emerge.  Gmail was conceived during a conversation over lunch in a Google cafeteria, according to company legend.

The shift to off-site working has been gradual but continuing as technology improved and expanded capabilities.  The January 2013 issue of Dining Insights noted, “Companies now have new ways to outsource even highly skilled work to freelance workers all over the world.”  The new way is “a pool of virtual workers that can be tapped on demand to provide a wide range of services,” Evgeny Kaganer of the University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain wrote then in the MIT Sloan Management Review. 

This market is alive and well today.  Technical writers, among others, can be had for as little as $200 an assignment – no taxes, no benefits, no legal complications or commitments, not even a desk and chair for a day.

Over the years since around 2010, employees in search of work/life balance have increasingly worked a day or two a week from home.  Participation data for corporate dining facilities have reflected declining on-premises populations.  The Society for Hospitality and Foodservice Management’s semi-annual Industry Standard and Benchmark Comparisons survey’s reports of lunch participation in company dining centers nationwide tells the story:*
    1992:    An average 56% of available employees had lunch in the company dining center.
    2002:    43% of available employees
    2012:    Office environment, 35.9% (early in the trend to remote working)
    2016    Office environment, 35.0%
    2018    Office environment, 31.0% (latest data available)
    * Each year’s survey reports the prior year’s statistics.  The 1993 survey reported 1992 results, etc.

With the advent of Zoom and other conferencing software systems – and a hard shove from Covid-19 – remote office work has become nearly universal.  Whether, when and how a significant return to offices will occur are open questions at this point.  Obviously, if lunch participation falls much below the 2018 average of 31%, employee dining service will become not just unsupportable, but virtually obsolete in many office environments, seriously denting a large segment of the on-site food service industry.  Will it happen?

It would take a remarkably clear crystal ball to see what will happen in 2021 and beyond, including when and how the economy will recover, but based on experience during prior (but much slower) transitions in office arrangements and fluctuations in the economy, some reasonable expectations can be considered.

1.    It’s probable that physical presence in offices will average below 50% of actual employment  for a year or more, even after the coronavirus is tamed.  The comfort of executives and employees generally (no need to get dressed up; no commute) and company advantages (no or limited employee dining, coffee pantries, conference services and other expensive services to support; less office space needed) will be important considerations in deciding office populations.

Depending on the company, average daily office populations could be 25% or less.  Operations like call centers and tech support services operate as well remotely as they did when everyone was in an office.  Much other routine work probably can be performed remotely as well.  The use of freelancers for specific assignments may expand.
                              
2.    It will take a while for disadvantages to show up in various ways at different companies, each perhaps seeking its own solution.  For example, a company with 1,000 employees that reduced its office space as 75% of its employees worked remotely may find the office is now  too small if it must bring more people back to the premises.

3.    What other kinds of disadvantages?  Principally, the loss of face-to-face contact and communication.  Zoom or similar conference systems are okay; each participant can see the others’ heads and shoulders, but miss the vital body language which often speaks more eloquently than words.  Everyone has to take a turn speaking, making the conference more formal than it would be for a group around a table.  Meetings have to be scheduled; they can’t be spontaneous.  Serious negotiations, like contracts, are unlikely to be as productive when participants can’t face each other in person and measure the other party’s reactions.  There are no refreshment breaks or buffet luncheons when participants can relax and socialize informally away from the business at hand or a tough negotiation.

4.    Despite the Nomadic Learning folk’s forecast, the absence of informal meetings and interactions will inhibit creativity and innovation to some degree; maybe a lot.  Lone wizards might thrive, but team-oriented people aren’t hermits.  They may find working remotely in a group awkward and unrewarding.

5.    Humans are social beings.  If thousands of people are willing to face a bitingly cold November or December Saturday or Sunday to cheer a football team, why would they not want to gather in a more cordial atmosphere?  Employee morale depends on the enthusiasm and engagement of its people, identifying with the company and the stimulation of working with each other.  A company softball team or bowling club is unlikely to form among remote workers, eliminating one more tie to the organization.

Of course, times are changing.  New technologies may offset these apparent disadvantages; companies may find artificial intelligence is more efficient and reliable than humans, and the rising generation’s concept of work and life most likely will be different than that of their predecessors.

As wise people have been saying for ages, Time will tell.

Dining Insights is published by Clarion Group, a consulting firm providing solutions and uncovering opportunities in dining and hospitality services for companies, colleges and universities, government agencies and other organizations.  For information on how we may benefit you and your organization, call Tom Mac Dermott, 603/642-8011 or Ted Mayer, 617/875-7882 or visit our website, https://clariongp.com.

A Short History of Office Evolution

Office arrangements follow trends, the way fashions and diets do; they just don’t change as fast – the cost of restructuring facilities and buying new furniture and equipment is a bigger investment than new clothes.

But trends there are.  A photo of an office in the 1930s and ‘40s, even into the ‘50s, would show people busy at row after row of desks in a great open space.  Managers and executives had separate, four-walls-and-a-door offices, some alongside the open office’s wall or upstairs for the more important folks.  Size of office and access to a window (and the view outside the window) denoted rank.

As the need for massive squadrons of clerks diminished and jobs became more specialized, the “cube farm” became the way to go.  Everyone had an individual cubicle to call his/her own, demarcated by a five-or-so-foot high partition with space for a built-in desk and chair.  The size of the cube (some as little as six by eight feet) and location – in the middle of the floor or by a window – indicated rank.  A little better privacy, but not much.  The walls weren’t high and there was no door, letting in extraneous noise and neighbors.  A lot of cube farms survive today.

In the 2000s, the new way of structuring the office was the open plan – no walls (except maybe in the executive suite), a scattering of desks, tables, comfortable chairs and a couch around a coffee table, ping-pong and foosball tables along a back wall.  Convenient coffee pantries with free beverages and snacks and a large, open employee dining center serving everything from gourmet entrees to comfort food to vegan selections, catering to every taste at subsidized prices, were essential elements.

The idea, advocates said, was to encourage open interaction and spontaneous creativity.  The fact that it took less space than a conventional cube farm, coupled with the introduction of desk “hoteling” (desks not assigned, available for anyone to use, often first-come, first-served), wasn’t seen as a disadvantage by corporate management.  The concept was – and is – considered most important by tech companies and others where innovation and creativity are their primary competitive tools.

The downside that emerged was there was no place to hide when working alone or with two or three others on a task or a project.  Many companies found they had to provide semi-private spaces for such work.  The expansion of mobile computer connectivity helped solve the issue for solo work; the employee who had to concentrate could stay home and work, away from distractions.  As the technology improved, the idea of working from home (or somewhere other than the office) caught hold and came to be encouraged to varying degrees by employers.  Work/life balance was often the motivation.

By the 20-teens, remote working had become so popular that, as noted above, office employee café lunch participation rates fell from more than 50% in the 1990s to less than a third by 2018.  Of course, the most popular day for concentrating on important projects without office distractions is Friday.

Now, the coronavirus emergency has converted a nice amenity into a business necessity. As the emergency recedes, remote working will likely remain as a key element of the new way of doing business for many organizations. 

Micromarts Merge Food Service and Vending

Convergence is a term usually associated with communications, the blurring of lines between television, the internet, smart phones and the like.

Now convergence has come to corporate food service. The line between staffed employee cafes and vending is being blurred with the emergence of the unattended food service option called micromarkets.

The new concept provides fresh and packaged foods in a compact convenience store-style setting, but requires no attendant or cashier. Customers select their products from glass-front refrigerated display cases, shelves and racks, then pay for the purchases at a touchscreen kiosk, similar to those found at Home Depot and some supermarkets.

A surveillance camera monitors the space, discouraging pilferage. Current operators say their pilferage loss is about 2%.

The micromarket concept is designed for workplaces that are too small to support a staffed café and where vending is an inadequate solution, generally between 150 and 500 population.

The concept can supplement the corporate food service’s central dining center for a company whose population spread among several buildings on a campus. The compact units can be installed in buildings that are too far from the central dining center to be convenient to employees. It also would work for a company in a high rise where the employee café isn’t convenient to some floors.

It could be useful in a company that has a population in evenings, overnight or on weekends, when the dining center is closed. It also can replace the staffed company store or c-store, selling sundries and company-logo products in addition to light foods, snacks and beverages. These units usually are losers, because low sales can’t support the attendant’s wages.

Space requirements are minimal,. As little as a 20x20-foot semi-enclosed room or alcove is all that’s needed, enough for a two- or three-door refrigerated display case, shelving and racks for non-refrigerated products, a payment kiosk and surveillance camera.

The concept is gaining a niche in corporate food service. There were a total of 2,642 micromarkets in operation at the end of 2012, up by 170% from 2011, according to industry reports.

So far, independent vending companies that have fresh food commissaries and the national Canteen division of Compass Group are the ones promoting micromarkets. Vendors say sales double when a micromarket replaces a bank of vending machines. The low cost and ease of installation makes the option especially attractive.

There’s nothing to prevent a company or its food service operator from installing a micromarket, supported from the central kitchen instead of an outside commissary.

The key for anyone who wants to include a micromarket in its corporate food service portfolio is to ensure the food offered is fresh, appealing and well packaged. That means daily restocking and strict rotation of product. Just a few customers having a bad experience will be enough to destroy acceptance and sales. That’s why fresh food vending often is unsuccessful. Customers don’t believe the food is fresh.

Micromarkets are only one of many creative solutions Clarion Group can bring to your employee dining, executive dining, catering and other hospitality services.  To learn how we can improve value, increase sales and crate a more cost-effective food service program, contact Tom Mac Dermott, 603/642-8011 or Angela Phelan, 609/619-3295 or e-mail us at info@clariongp.com.  Take a look at our website, www.clariongp.com,

The Unung Heros of Corporate Food Service

By Tom Mac Dermott, FCSI, President, Clarion Group

www.clariongp.com

 

A version of this article appeared in the online newsletter of Food Management magazine

 

“It doesn’t matter which company, it’s the manager they send me that makes the difference,” is a frequent comment by corporate facilities managers and others who are responsible for their organizations’ on-site food services that are operated by a food service management company.

And they’re right – to an extent.  The manager of an on-site food service certainly has the primary responsibility for the day-to-day operation, including the quality of meals, service and catering; hiring, training and overseeing hourly employees; financial results, and sometimes, more.

But who ensures the on-site manager is doing the job properly, provides advice and support and brings in the food service company’s specialized resources as needed?  That’s the district manager (or equivalent title, such as director of operations).

Company executives usually get most of the attention and credit, but it’s their district managers who are in the field making sure everything goes right at the dozen or so operations they supervise.

The DM is the direct link between contractor and client.  He or she is the direct overseer of the on-site manager, is directly responsible for client relations, utilization of the contractor’s resources to solve problems and improve services, and for the company’s success or failure at a location.

How do they manage their multiple responsibilities?  How do they coach their on-site managers, resolve problems, satisfy clients, deal with personnel, budgets, sales and cost, profit or loss and other issues?

Close communication with the on-site manager and the client’s representative is the key say district managers for several companies.

“No surprises” is the way Adam Salem, a director of operations for the Flik International division of Compass Group, sums it up.  “I talk to or visit my clients every week and keep in touch through e-mail.”  He’s responsible for food services at a group of corporate offices and law firms in the Washington, DC area.  With his regional vice president, he also holds quarterly review meeting with his clients.

Ken McIntyre, a long-time director of operations for Guckenheimer overseeing corporate headquarters accounts, was recently promoted to regional vice president for the Middle Atlantic and Southeastern region.

He says client relationship management is structured.  The director of operations has “monthly review meetings with our client and the on-site manager.”  A quarterly major review is also attended by him as regional vice president.  “It’s the centerpiece of the client relationship and a measuring tool [enabling us] to measure and manage the operation.”

John Gee, a Culinart Group West Coast district manager for corporate accounts, agrees.  “Getting off to a good start with a new client is important to establish the relationship.” he says.  He has mostly corporate and some education accounts throughout California.  He meets with clients on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, “unless they have a question” in the interim.

Gee, a 20-year veteran with Culinart, has the unusual experience of having been a district manager on both coasts.  After working in the company’s home region in the Northeast, he transferred in 2006 to their division in Los Angeles with accounts all along the Pacific Coast and in the Southwest.

What’s the difference in the business on the two coasts?

“New York is very traditional – shirt, tie and suit,” he says.  But despite the laid-back, no necktie attitude, “California is not more relaxed when it comes to work.  Don’t underestimated what happens out here. [Clients expect] greater accountability than on the East Coast:  ‘We want it done, and done tomorrow.’”

A DM’s most important responsibility is ensuring his on-site managers are performing well, both operationally and financially.  This is accomplished by a combination of individual coaching and formal training through periodic meetings of all the district’s or region’s managers and online training programs.

Training programs range from the basics, like culinary skills and accounting, to regulatory compliance and human resources topics, such as disciplinary procedures and the prevention and handling of harassment issues.

“I have weekly meetings with all my managers and chefs via Webex (a web-based conferencing program),” Guckenheimer’s McIntyre explains. “An HR person, our regional health and wellness manager, marketing manager and corporate Director of Culinary Operations (manager of the company’s regional executive chefs) participate.  We have a very chef-driven culture.”

His managers also are enrolled in an online training program.  “Managers can pick their own topics, but they’re also required to take some specific courses.”

Adam Salem of Flik says, “Our regional resources, such as regional chef and marketing specialist, provide training.  Regional meetings also provide training opportunities.”

“Training is on-going” at Culinart, according to Gee.  “I have a senior manager work with the less-experienced managers to set them up for success.”

Despite their best efforts, things can go wrong at a DM’s account.  What do they do when an angry client calls with a complaint?

“You can’t wait.  You have to anticipate trouble,” Salem says.  “It’s most important to get in front of the client right away.”

“Get face-to-face as fast as possible – on the same day,” Gee echoes.  “You can’t change the complaint.  You have to correct whatever the problem is.”

McIntyre agrees. “The first thing is to listen and assess the situation.  I have to be open-minded and, most important, be pro-active in responding.” 

Like McIntyre, both Salem and Gee utilize regional or corporate specialists to get into the account and work with the manager to solve the problem and get the operation back on track.

Gee’s approach is to be positive.  “I get positive feedback from the client and [talk to the manager] about the good things first, build on the good things.  Positive reinforcement is the most effective way” to get a manager to see and resolve an issue.

“I meet with the on-site team and go to our resources – the regional chef and others – and create an action plan,” Salem explains.  “I come back to the client with the plan and follow up.”         

But what if the manager is the problem – he or she isn’t controlling the staff, has let costs run away or has a conflict with the client?

“Like a baseball team, we have to have a relief pitcher,” McIntyre says.  “It’s very important to have the right person ready to step in.”  He prefers managers with a culinary background.  “Many talented chefs get burned out in the kitchen and go into management.”

“Recruiting is on-going,” according to Gee.  “We try to promote from within before going outside” when an on-site manager needs to be changed.                           

“A weak [on-site management team] means I have to spend a lot of time there.  It’s not good for the client,” adds Salem.  “I’ve developed sources [to identify potential managers].”

Financial performance also is important, whether the operation is P&L (the operator has the financial risk) or subsidized (client has the financial risk).

“I have a weekly flash [report],” according to Gee.  “By Monday, I have the results.  I get on the phone, accounts with bad results first.”

Other DMs do essentially the same, relying on weekly “flash” reports from their managers, usually on the first business day after the accounting week closes.

“I review each account’s financial reports weekly,” Salem says.  “If there’s an issue, I return to the account and notify the client.  It’s important that there are no surprises.”

Salem best sums up the job for all DMs: “I’m successful because of the team I’ve built.  Communication is the key to the job.”    

'Human Cloud' Poses New Challenge to Corporate Food Service

Food service contractors and employed operators of corporate food services may face further diminishment of their customer bases. Operators will have to use technology to counteract the changes technology is forcing on their traditional ways of doing business.

Companies now have new ways to outsource even highly skilled work to freelance workers all over the world, reducing the need for – and cost of – on-site employees.

As reported in MIT Sloan Management Review by Evgeny Kaganer, an assistant professor at the University of Navarra in Barcelona, Spain and three other academics, "A third-generation sourcing ecosystem . . . the 'human cloud' is centered on an online middleman that engages a pool of virtual workers that can be tapped on demand to provide a wide range of services to any interested buyer."

New human cloud organizations can now provide freelance talent for at least 15 major work categories, including content generation, sales and marketing, design and optimization, Kaganer et al say. These are jobs that traditionally are kept in-house, but now may disappear from the office and the food service department’s customer pool.

Human cloud organizations ("platforms") – the middlemen who connect companies and freelancers – saw their revenue increase by 53% in 2010 and 74% in 2011, the authors said. The number of active platforms increased to more than 100 in 2012 from about 40 in 2011.

As rapidly-advancing technology has disrupted other industries, it now is food service management’s turn. Corporate food service operators will have to rethink their business models to stay relevant in this new environment.

For example, a Clarion Group client with $1.5 billion in sales and 4,500 employees nationwide has only 250 employees at its new headquarters, where it is just opening a new food service, and has no food service at any of its other offices. Technology has enabled other Clarion clients to increase sales and profits while reducing on-site headcounts.

The impact of this sharp and still evolving change in the way businesses operate has an impact on both the food service operator and the company it serves. Formerly profitable food services may become unprofitable for the operator, and the company may find it has a choice of either subsidizing its employee food services or reducing their scope.

The solutions will vary from company to company, but all will involve a change in the way the food service operator looks at, and manages, the business. Companies will have to cooperate with their operators as they both adapt to the new reality."

For example, at company with multiple buildings on a large campus, closing cafes in all but the most highly-populated buildings (about 1,000 employees) may be necessary. The other buildings can be serviced by the type of food trucks that now are popular, and successful, on college campuses.

At smaller sites, a mini-café supported from an off-site commissary and staffed by one or two attendants may be a solution.

Vending operators, including some major food service contractors, have begun installing "micromarkets," a c-store-type, compact facility with no attendant. The customer selects foods from refrigerated display cases and shelves and pays for the purchases at a self-checkout kiosk. This option only works in a closed environment with a small population, about 250 or fewer employees.

Clarion Group can help you meet the new challenges of the evolving world of corporate and campus food service.  For information, contact Tom Mac Dermott, president, 603/642-8011; Angela Phelan, senior vice president, 201/306-8613, or Ernie Wilder, vice president, 703/282-4040, or e-mail us at info@clariongp.com.  Visit our website, www.clariongp.com

Clients Often Miss Full Value of Food Service Consultants

Reprinted from FM Newslinks, on-line newsletter of Food Management magazine.

"Food service consultants frequently aren’t used to their full value by their corporate clients," Tom Mac Dermott, president of Clarion Group, a corporate food service consulting firm, says. "Often, we’re brought into a project too late to provide maximum benefit for our client."

"For example, if a corporate food service facility design project is already underway when the consultant is retained, it may be too late to incorporate important features or modify the plan for maximum efficiency and service," he says.

"A corporate food service consulting project also may not deliver full value if our recommendations are accepted but we’re not retained to implement them," he added.

There are three key components to a successful corporate food service consulting project whose objective is improving performance, service and cost-effectiveness, according to Mac Dermott:

Investigation: What’s happening now? What are the services? How are they being performed? Where are the weaknesses that need to be improved?

Research and Recommendations: The consultant reviews operational and financial records of the food service, researches alternatives to the current methods, procedures and systems and develops solutions to remove obstacles, strengthen inadequate areas and increase the value of the corporate food service to the client.

Implementation: The consultant works with the client and the food service operator to implement the solutions to ensure they are successfully established and maintained.

"This last step is where a corporate food service consulting project actually provides its value," Mac Dermott says. "If the consultant’s report and recommendations are just accepted and filed away, the time, effort and cost invested in the project is wasted."

The food service consultant needs to be retained throughout the implementation phase, Mac Dermott says, "because the operator often has a degree of ‘tunnel vision’ and can’t see beyond his own, comfortable way of doing things and the corporate client doesn’t have the knowledge or experience to know whether the needed improvements are being implemented effectively."

"Our corporate food service consultants have decades of experience in all types of operations and know to work with the on-site manager and staff to clear away obstacles, provide training and solve problems as they arise," he says.

Corporate Food Service: A Benefit or a Convenience?

Companies that once considered low cost meals an employee benefit sometimes now are revising their attitude and thinking of food service as a convenience that should be self-sustaining.

The conversion can be tricky because it inevitably means higher prices and maybe fewer services when the food service has to pay its own way.  In working with corporate clients, Clarion Group consultants have seen the conversions completed with minimal disruption and customer acceptance – and disastrously.

The worst way to convert from subsidized to "P&L" (the operator has the risk of profit-or-loss) is all at once. Customers come in one morning and the price of everything is higher.

In one instance we witnessed, customers in a central city corporate headquarters almost completely boycotted the food service. Sales dropped by two-thirds overnight when prices were increased by 20%.  Nobody protested, they just began bringing their own meals to work or went out to the dozen or so nearby restaurants, delis and fast food outlets.

The losses were so severe that within a month, the food service operator was threatening to terminate its contract. Two months later, a new operator was in place.  Clarion prepared the Request for Proposals and managed the selection process.

The new food service contractor had some advantages.  The dirty work – price increases and service reductions – had been done by the predecessor.  The new operator gave the café a modest facelift, restored some services, introduced a new menu and rejuvenated what had been a mediocre operation into a model food service program.

Customers returned and sales rose to their former level, although prices hadn’t been reduced; they saw greater value in the new operation and meals offered for the prices.

The most effective way to eliminate or reduce the subsidy is gradually.  In cooperation with the food service contractor, a conversion can be made gradually, over a period of two years with minimal, or no, customer backlash.

Companies use long-range planning for the management of their businesses, development of new products or services, advertising and marketing, equipment purchases and the like.   They should do the same when they want to eliminate the food service subsidy.

When you want to shift the burden of profit or loss in your company's or organization's food services, we can help plan a successful conversion.  For information, contact Tom Mac Dermott, president, 603/642-8011, or Angela Phelan, senior vice president, 201/306-8613 or Ernie Wilder, vice president, 703/282-4040, or e-mail us at info@clariongp.com.  Visit our website, www.clariongp.com.

Bringing Healthy Meals and Sustainability to Food Service

For far too long, the operators of company and campus dining services have focused on the popularity of the foods they offer, with no concern for their nutritional value," says Angela Phelan, senior vice president of Clarion Group. "Now it's time to reverse that trend. Customers are asking for better, healthier foods and expect their at-work or on-campus cafes will provide it."
Under the new federal health care legislation, all food service operators of 20 or more locations will be required to post calorie counts next to food items on their menus. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will determine whether more information will be required.

Operators also must make written data about dishes' nutritional content available to diners on request. The U.S. Food and Drung Administration is empowered to determine whether the information was developed "on a reasonable basis." The requirements will be expanded in the future, Ms Phelan predicts.
The increasing demand for healthier foods dovetails with the need to improve the sustainability of our environment, according to Ms Phelan. "The use of fresh, organic foods, grown locally, and efficient food preparation and operating practices are key elements of an effective sustainability program, she said.

Clarion Group's Fresh & Natural program may be a solution for companies and institutions seeking to improve the value of their on-site food services. The program was developed by Clarion Group under Ms Phelan's leadership to constructively respond to these issues for on-site food service operations. The program includes imaginative, nutritious meals prepared "from scratch" using fresh, locally-sourced ingredients; elimination of junk foods; promotion of nutrition information and education, complementing the company's or college's own wellness initiatives.

The Fresh & Natural approach includes enhancing sustainability and reducing operating costs by incorporating efficient operating practices; employing energy-efficient "Energy Star" equipment; conservation of utilities, water and energy, and waste reduction through recycling, pulping, composting and other ecologically-beneficial practices.

Fresh & Natural currently is in development or under discussion at three Clarion clients, Ms Phelan reports.