Corporate catering business in deep holiday slump

Perhaps corporate party planners did not get the memo that the recession is over.

This year represents the worst holiday party slump ever recorded by Amrop Battalia Winston’s  annual Survey on Corporate Holiday Celebrations, now in its 22nd year, released in November. Local catering operations confirm the national findings.

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“We have seen the same delayed effect of a bad economy that we saw after 9/11,´ said Paul Pellegrino, owner/chef of All Occasions Catering in Fort Collins. “2001 and 2002 were good years for us. Then we had a harsh decline and then a climb back up. Our best year ever for the heart of our catering business was 2008. Our business decreased 40 percent in 2009.”

Pellegrino anticipated another 25 percent decline for 2010 – back to 2006 levels.

“We met that loss in October,” he said. “So we are going to do better than we thought and beat 2006.”

Korey Albert of Albert Pit Barbeque has faced a similar decline.

“I don’t think businesses are using caterers,” he said. “We have plenty of weddings, but we really need the corporate catering to make money.”

Albert added that for his business, trying to hold on in a lousy economy has been complicated by the arrival of new competition. Within the past two years alone, three locally owned barbecue restaurants and one chain, Famous Dave’s, have opened. Barbecue tends to be relatively recession proof and, thus, attractive to chefs who want to strike out on their own (Moe’s Original BBQ) or restaurateurs who want to expand (Serious Texas Bar-B-Que and Nordy’s).

Aside from weddings, the bright spot on Albert’s ledger for the holiday season is smoked turkey.

“We are doing better with turkeys than we have in past years,” he said. “More people may be cooking for themselves this year, but a nice smoked turkey or turkey breast is so easy to put on the table.”

Albert anticipates that the economy will start to loosen up in the spring and summer, traditionally good months for barbecue. Elizabeth McBryde, owner of Fiona’s, also thinks that corporations will be loosening their purse strings a little next year, but until then things look tight.

“The economy began to hit us at the end of 2008,” she said. “I have been doing catering since 1992 and have owned my own business for the last 11years, so I have seen trends. Caterers go through ebbs and flows. One big party can change cash flow completely, and so it is hard to anticipate exactly what a year will bring.”

In McBryde’s view, the current trend is all about keeping it simple and avoiding the appearance of mass consumption.

“No one is going to throw an over-the-top, fully catered party when their neighbors are in foreclosure,” she said. “Big corporations don’t want to draw attention to themselves with big holiday parties.”

Her observation squares with the ABW survey: Over half (55 percent) of their respondents cited their primary reason for not holding a holiday party as its not being appropriate in these economic times. That compared to 27 percent who said that a holiday party just was not in their budget.

The primary reason given for having a party? Not to schmooze with clients, but to celebrate a good year (assuming that there was one) or to boost company morale. That would account for the finding that of those companies having parties, most of them were for employees only.

All the downward trends in catered holiday parties have contributed to another ripple in the 2010 catering plunge: the one rocking the nonprofit charity boat.

“When a nonprofit holds a fundraising event, they need to serve food,” McBryde said. “You can’t raise money for entertainment, and so nonprofits depend on caterers to donate food. But when my profits are down 30 percent, so are my charitable donations.”

Although McBryde has had to work hard to remain profitable, she still remains optimistic.

“I am a much better businesswoman than I was two years ago,” she said.

Pellegrino shares both the optimism and the sense that in dealing with the punishment of the economic situation and accepting its reality, he has learned to be more creative with holding down expenses and with working with vendors.

“I felt that there was a real synergy in place,” he said. “Our vendors want us to be successful.”

He also noted the necessity of identifying new markets for the future.

“It takes time and money to move a new idea forward,” he said. “So we are waiting for a more fluid part of the year to see how we can fund our ideas. We live in a state of chronically changing priorities, but we know that successful business growth in the future depends on the business you do today. We stand optimistic.”

Eat hearty, eat local

If it is true that for most people planning holiday parties, hiring a caterer is not economically feasible, it is at least possible to support the local economy by buying everything from pies to poultry from local producers.

When in doubt, plan dessert first.

Sue Albert, who with her husband Roger owns Fat Albert’s in Greeley, bakes up a storm – always from scratch – during the holiday season.

“For the Christmas table, cherry pie to go with a ham is very popular,” she said. “People also like our pecan Kentucky Derby Pie and the pumpkin streusel with brown sugar, oats and walnuts. Of course, our year-round all-time favorite is our peanut butter pie. You can’t get them everywhere.”

And for a holiday touch at the breakfast table, Albert bakes cinnamon bread braided wreaths. Just pull off a piece and heat it up on a chilly morning.

Meanwhile, up in Estes, Valerie and Rick Thompson are baking homemade pies and pastries for the holidays at the Estes Park Pie Shop and Bakery, a shop they bought two years ago.

“Our coffee cake is my grandmother’s recipe,” Thompson said. “Our favorites for the holidays are caramel apple pecan and strawberry rhubarb pies.”

For the vegetable course, Sari Schauer of Grant Family Farms in Wellington said that there are plenty of interesting veggies to choose from, especially at the winter farmers’ markets.

“There are some wonderful specialty winter squashes like buttercup as well as the regular acorn and winter varieties,” she said. “There are beets, leeks, onions and potatoes. The little cippolini onions that look like UFOs are wonderful roasted whole and served with beef. We also will have ducks available at the farmers’ markets.”

Aaron Rice, owner of Jodar Farms near Fort Collins, will also have ducks, at least into December.

“All our poultry is free range, and so when it gets really cold, we stop,” he said. “We had turkeys, but sold them through our CSA.”

What a bounty for the holidays! Cook it up, eat it up, and if you need some help, call a caterer and relax.

Jane Albritton is a contributing writer for the Business Report. Her monthly column features restaurant and hospitality industry news. She can be contacted at jane@tigerworks.com.