Safwat Jabi presenting the award to Emirates Leisure Retail Events Team. Safwat Jabi presenting the award to Emirates Leisure Retail Events Team.

Emirates Leisure Retail Events Team took home the events catering team of the year award at the 2017 Caterer Middle East awards.

Emirates Leisure Retail manage the F&B for the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby 7s, Taste of Dubai and the European Tour: Race to Dubai, to mention a few.

Over the year, the catering service provider has provide its services to more than 200,000 guests, at over 30 events with a relatively small team.

“The way we do it is we offer the guests an enhanced F&B experience and provide a diverse range of offerings. That happens when we listen to our guests, partners and all our stakeholders, who demand nothing less than perfection all the time,” said Kevan Hodges, general manager – bars and restaurants and food development, Emirates Leisure Retail.

“We draw on the expertise and support of the wider ELR Bars & Restaurants team to facilitate these events, utilising internal experts within our business,” Hodges added.

Emirates Leisure Retail found particular success with the Food Truck Village it launched at the 2016 Rugby 7s. This lead to an increase in sales over 200,000aed from this area alone.

In 2016 Emirates Leisure Retail also introduced an RFID payment system for the Rugby 7s, enabling the company to track customer spend patterns across the site, accurately track stock usage and peak traffic times. “For 2017, this will enable us to better plan the staffing, stocking and locations of the F&B outlets for this event,” said the winners on the night.

The award was presented to Emirates Leisure Hospitality by DMK’s marketing assistant Safwat Jabi.

Galeries Lafayette Le Gourmet Events team was the highly commended nominee in this category, a full list of the shortlisted nominees can be found here.

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