CASE STUDY GREGGS
ENGINEERS ON THE GO
Jason O’Neill, National Maintenance Operations Manager for Greggs, explains how
the food-on-the-go retailer has created a state-of-the-art, technology-led, shop
maintenance service with impressive results
I joined Greggs 20 years ago as a shop
maintenance engineer. Having worked
through various roles within the
team, I now head up shop maintenance
operations. In today’s fiercely competitive
market, the facilities service management
operation is a vital backbone for all food
service chains. It can impact so many
areas of a business, including costs,
margins, revenue, health and safety and
customer experience.
Any ine iciency has the potential to
a ect margins through higher costs and
reduce revenue through lost sales and
negative customer experience. Equipment
breakdown, such as a hot food unit or co ee
machine with a fault, needs to be fixed as
fast as possible to avoid lost sales, customer
frustration and, potentially, money in a
competitor’s pocket.
24 SEPTEMBER 2019
Unfortunately, when it comes to setting
the strategic agenda, many organisations
don’t give the facilities service management
operation the business-critical focus it
should have. But as pressure continues
to increase on the cost and revenue front,
particularly with Brexit looming, this is likely
to change.
By innovating and introducing new
technology in facilities service management,
the productivity improvements and
cost savings gained can o set rising
and less controllable costs in other
areas of the business. Processes can
be streamlined, operational e iciency
optimised, touchpoints minimised, and
administration reduced – not just across
facilities management, but in back o ice
administration, sales order processing
and invoicing. It’s important for all food
service businesses to recognise that new
technologies can help them to remain
competitive.
Automation and digital processes
can remove millions of administration
touchpoints and a great deal of paperwork
each year, as well as providing visibility,
control and an important digital audit
trail. For organisations and food service
chains with field service teams, routes, fuel
consumption and CO emissions can be
monitored and minimised through a service
management system to reduce both costs
and environmental impact.
At Greggs, serving millions of customers
each week depends on our service
operations team maintaining our equipment
and premises in optimum condition, from
fridges and freezers, hot food units and
co ee machines to the speedy repair of