Customer choice drives Spirit line

by MA Reporter

Spirit Group has launched a 'Best Ever' range that features definitive versions of its customers' favourite 20 dishes. The creation of its Best Ever range has focused on quality improvements to the 20 menu items its customers love the most. The company hopes producing definitive Best Ever dishes will contribute strongly to Spirit's plan to increase food sales by 150% to £1bn by 2010.

Prior to re-launching the menu, Spirit conducted in-depth research to establish what it was about its dishes that customers liked or disliked.

Among the feedback it was found that round bowls make a portion of lasagne seem smaller than an oval bowl, and when serving up a portion of steak and ale pie, customers like to see a completely full plate with no china showing.

Taking on board its customers' comments, Spirit has re-launched 20 dishes including breaded scampi, lasagne, chicken tikka masala, steak and ale pie, rump steak, salad du jardin and chocolate fudge cake.

In addition, to improve menu knowledge among its customer-facing pub teams, Spirit has also provided each pub with a product card detailing the ingredients that go into each dish and how each is prepared. For example, they specify how the sauce in its lasagne is finished with a blend of herbs and a full-bodied red wine from the Languedoc region of France.

The Best Ever dishes, which are now available in Spirit pubs, have been developed in conjunction with key suppliers including RF Brookes, Whitby Seafood and Dunkerlys.

Christian Rose, director of food at Spirit Group, said: 'Dishes such as scampi and steak are classic pub favourites and sound like easy dishes to get right. But as our research has shown, unless you deliver consistently high quality ingredients, cooked and served properly, you disappoint the customer. We're confident our Best Ever range will have the opposite effect and keep our customers coming back time and time again.