Monday 20 January 2014

Edition 2

Creating Opportunities


HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014
Be-spoke Christmas Cakes.

A little belated, but the whole team at Fly Cup would like to wish all our customers, past, present and future a very happy 2014.




Update - End of 2013

The last, which was also the first edition of  "The Natter" included an introduction to a new member of our Fly Cup Catering team June Falkiner.  June arrived during December and was straight away introduced to the Christmas Mince Pie order sheet.  If you ate one, I can almost guarantee it was made by our trainees with the help of June.

Nicole decorated my cake for me.
As well as Mince Pie we provided over a dozen hand made Christmas Cakes, each one unique, baked and decorated on-site by staff with the help of trainees. I can confirm that the cake which was made and decorated with the help of Nicole, was absolutely delicious and I have eaten my way through it over the past few weeks. 

Full !!!

In addition, to all the retail products of pies and cakes, the coffee shop was very busy, with over 110 people enjoyed a festive meal of either two or four courses.


Sean and Keri laid the Christmas table.

  
Our trainees were very involved in all aspects of the lunches, from preparing vegetables, laying tables and serving our customers.  As you can see from the picture, Keri and Sean would very much liked to have been having a lunch, but on this occasion they were just laying the table.


Feedback from our customers was lovely, thank you for your support.

We are pleased to have already had an enquiry for next Christmas, some people are just organised !!

To end the news from 2013, I would just like to share some of the fun we had at our trainee Christmas Party.  We started the proceedings by presenting certificates.  Then the fun began, with finger food, a chocolate fountain with fresh fruit, live music and Karoke, and (of course) a visit from Santa !

No need for words I think the pictures speak for themselves.  Albeit to say a jolly good time was had by all !!










As so to 2014 - and forward thinking.

Hot Cross Buns, ready for Easter.
We have all got straight back into things since returning from Christmas break, the coffee shop opened on 8th January and surprisingly we have had a steady stream of customers, and quite a few who have not been to Fly Cup Coffee shop before.  The bakery was back to normal straight away with all our regular customers re-stocking their shelves with tray bakes and shortbread. The Kitchen has not been quiet so busy with outside catering events, allowing us to spend a little time on planning ahead, in particular thinking about celebration events, such Burns, Valentines day and Easter.

Next week we will be celebrating Burn with Haggis, Neeps and Tatties on the menu, with a taste of Scottish Tablet to finish off.  And, although a little early, the bakery have started to prepare for Easter and this week we added Hot Cross Buns to our coffee shop menu.

Talking of customers, I am delighted to let you know that we have recently been awarded approval to supply catering to Schlumberger for their ad-hoc lunches, and are working with CJ Lang to become an approve vendor for Spar.  If you know of any other companies or retailers who would benefit in knowing what Fly Cup can provide then please do not hesitate to drop me an email and any contact names you may have.  (As the saying goes "its not what you know but who you know"!)

You - Supporting our Charity.

Following my last "Natter" we have had some lovely gifts and donations from customers visiting our coffee shop also companies who want to support a local charity.  Such as, Poundland (Inverurie) who donated 25 Christmas hats for our trainees Christmas party (see pictures above).  The donation of the Festive Cheer hamper from Keri's gran, raised £223.00 and was won by customer Gaynor.
Christmas Cheer Hamper won by Gaynor

A music center for the trainee staff room from Mrs Mellis, a customer in the coffee shop who read about our need in the last "Natter".  Thank you.

Tor Ecosse (Thainstone) raffled off Christmas gifts to staff and donated £85.00.

A friend of mine (Jenny) didn't send any Christmas cards and instead handed me a cheque for £50.00 this week, the money is going to be used to purchase new aprons for the team in the coffee shop.

In addition, I can add that, £265.00 from Caber Coffee's Ethyco grant has been awarded to enable a music centre to be purchased for the Coffee shop (I can now take my one back home!)

New Whites for everyone,
embroidered free of charge by Langstane Press
(Inverurie)
In my last "Natter" I mentioned that we had a grant from the Garioch Charity Shop for baby changing facilities and equipment.  Being frugal, we were able to buy all the equipment without spending the full amount and with the permission of the Charity Shop Directors,  I was able to buy a new set of Whites for all the trainees and staff in the kitchen.   As part of their corporate social responsibility objectives, Langstane Press embroidered the logo onto all of the uniforms free of charge, everyone looks very smart and we appreciated their contribution.

And finally, last but not least, World Duty Free at the airport, who support us regularly offered their customers a gift wrapping service and donated the proceeds to our fund.

We thank each and everyone one of you for your support.! 


The staff and volunteer team

As reported in the last "Natter" Santander awarded Fly Cup Catering funding of £20,000 during the autumn of 2013 towards staffing costs for one year.  I introduced June in my last edition, since then we have been joined by Claire who got straight into things helping in the coffee shop and floating around the kitchen in the lead up to Christmas.  Claire has been working four days a week during the busy part of the day and those of you regularly visiting the coffee shop will be getting to know her well.  A great addition to our team, welcome!

Volunteers are important to Fly Cup and we could not do as much with our trainees as we would like, without them.  Consequently, when we have a unexpected volunteer they are most welcome.  This was the case when following my plea for help at our bag pack a Facebook follower, Lesley turned up at Marks and Spencers in December.  Although I haven't seen Lesley since I heard from her mum that she had enjoyed the experience very much.  Not surprising, if you like to people watch, the occasion and shopping habits of people on the Monday before Christmas was fascinating.  Thank you Lesley for your help, we look forward to your continued support during the year with our fundraising objectives.  If you or any of your friends would like to volunteer with Fly Cup I would be delighted to discuss opportunities with you, from basic dish washing, supporting our trainees in their activities, helping with outside events, being part of our fundraising team, or helping with administration tasks.

Fundraising events

During the past year we have been fortunate to be the chosen Charity for the team at Marks and Spencer's (Inverurie).  Julie and her team at the store have organised a number of events and raising money in a variety of ways.  Over the coming weeks Julie and her team are organising a Bingo Night and a Quiz Night, both are being held here at Fly Cup, with refreshments included in the ticket price.  Preliminary dates are Friday 31st January or 7th February and 30th March.  In addition, there is a bag pack planned for 1st March.  If you would like tickets to any of the events, or can help with the bag pack, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible.

And Finally,

Spring is looming, the snow drops are starting to put their white heads up in my garden, the team here at Fly Cup look forward to welcoming old friends and new customers in our coffee shop, new retail customers around the area, and to delivering a range of new products, we look forward to having you along for the journey.

Until my next "Natter" take care of yourselves and if in the cafe remember to say hello to me.

This "Natter" is distributed as widely as possible and can be found
Via this blog at flycuppa.blogspot.com
You can request an email copy manager@flycup.org c
Connect on our Facebook page which is facebook.com/pages/Flycup-catering
Follow me on twitter @flycuppa
or if you are not bothered about modern technology then just ask for a paper copy (printed courtesy of Semco Maritime UK, Aberdeen) from any of the staff when visiting the coffee shop or phone me on 01467 625645.

 Best wishes .....Denise