BELTON GARDEN CENTRE’S COFFEE SHOP & RESTAURANT IS RENOWNED FOR THE QUALITY OF ITS HOME-COOKED FOOD
Belton Garden Centre near Grantham has switched dishwashing supplier, replacing three new hood machines installed in a 2014 refurbishment of its Coffee Shop & Restaurant, which seats 250 and with additional seating outside, serves more than 5,000 covers per week.
The three dishwashing machines installed in 2014 came from a German competitor to MEIKO and included one with a reverse osmosis rinse, which gives a sparkling shine to glassware and cutlery in particular.
Belton Garden Centre is owned by the Elkington family and Director Karen Elkington explained the reasons for switching dishwash supplier.
“They were simply unreliable; there was problem after problem. Engineers were called out two to three times per week and sometimes one day straight after another.
“Dishwashing is the most important part of the kitchen for a busy operation like ours. If the dishwash fails to function, we have no other option but to stop service when we run out of crockery.
“The engineers who came to fix the reverse osmosis machine didn’t have a clue and things got so bad that the supplier gave us an extra year of warranty.”
That extended warranty period ended early in 2017 and the dishwashing supplier wanted to offer Belton a new service contract to continue the maintenance of their three dishwashing machines.
“Even though they – the manufacturer – had been maintaining their own machines up to this point in time, using their own engineers and spare parts, they wanted us to pay extra to ‘put the machines into proper working order’ before they would undertake a new service contract.
“At this point, we decided we did not want the machines, maintained or not, even if they were free!”
Belton Garden Centre is part of a group and its other site at Ruskington has operated successfully for many years with a MEIKO dishwasher.
Ironically, at the time of the refurbishment in 2014, Belton had originally been keen on installing a MEIKO dishwashing system, but were persuaded to choose an alternative supplier by the catering equipment distributor who designed and installed their new catering facilities.
Belton has now installed a MEIKO UPster K-M250 rack transport dishwasher and a MEIKO DV 80.2 GiO AC hood type dishwasher.
“We chose the MEIKO package because we already knew the MEIKO machines were reliable and the service support good,” says Karen Elkington.
“We discussed the machine options with MEIKO’s Regional Sales Director Peter Nimmo and Regional Sales Manager Ross Genner, who gave us good advice about capacity and throughput.
“We have also taken out a five-year MEIKO extended warranty."
“The machines have proved reliable and we have had no major issues. What minor niggles there were with the machine at our Ruskington site were fixed first time.
“MEIKO is a good company, with good staff and they are nice people to deal with. All in all, they provide excellent support.”
