Blog posts tagged with 'crystal stemware'

As it’s quickly approaching the end of the year and the holiday season, we thought it would be fitting to compile some of the articles we consider to be some of the most useful, most insightful or most educational of the year. This has been a fantastic year for National Event Supply. We hope you’ve had a great one as well. Click on the industry you’re interested in below and you’ll be fast tracked to the articles of interest for you.

• Party Rental
• Restaurants
• Catering

Party Rental

Rental Essentials: Party Rental Stops 'Death Spiral' Discounting Policies

With the business climate becoming better every passing day, no longer are event rental companies in a discount death spiral of discounting far or fast enough. Now, many companies are using discounting as a strategic business tool instead of a way to survive. Check out this article from Special Events Magazine to see how other event rental companies are utilizing discounts.

10 Predictions About the 2014 Event Rental Industry

According to a number of big party and event rental companies profiled by Special Events Magazine, “business has firmed up in 2013, and they expect the same continued–albeit slow–growth in 2014.” With 2013 nearing an end, a number of publications across the entire foodservice, hospitality, and event industry have been forecasting how the 2014 Party and Event Rental industry will fare. Check out 10 of the most interesting things we’ve uncovered!

Compete or Collaborate?

In business, it’s more often you hear about strategic alliances with complementary businesses. Very rarely do you hear about strategic alliances with the competition. But an article by InTents Magazine suggests there are potential benefits with collaborating with your competition – while carefully analyzing the pros and cons prior to entering the partnership. Check out the full article for what you should be asking before going ahead with a potential deal.

2 Crucial Items Required to Start a Party Rental Business

Perhaps you’re an equipment rental company, looking for a way to add additional revenue through the expansion of your products and services. Perhaps you’re a catering company looking to service a greater portion of your clients' needs. Or, perhaps you're thinking of starting a new Party Rental business and not sure where to start. Whatever the case may be, when looking to expand your revenue there are a number of crucial items that it makes sense to begin stocking as additional revenue generators.

Restaurants

Podcast: How to Focus on Catering to Transform Your Restaurant

I stumbled across a podcast I think is a gem for anyone in the restaurant industry looking for additional ways to build revenue. Mark Deo, Veteran CBS Radio Host interviewed a man by the name of Erle Dardick, author of the books “Get Catering and Grow Sales!” and “501 Killer Marketing Tactics for Cranking Up Your Catering Sales”. Erle joins Mark’s podcast entitled “The Small Business Hour, as heard on CBS Radio” to discuss how focusing on catering helped transform his restaurant. To listen to the full podcast – click here.

[Infographic] The Top 35 Restaurant Apps Consumers Are Using Right Now

As a restaurant, including your establishment on the top 35 restaurant apps that consumers are using right now – ensures that you’re putting your best foot forward and getting found where consumers are looking for you. We found an infographic on Visual.ly by Pizzamarketplace.com, fastcasual.com and QSRweb.com that summarizes the top 35 restaurant apps consumers are using right now.

Menu Optimization: Three Ways to Help Your Outstanding Menu Items Take Centre stage

A restaurant's menu is its single most important marketing tool once a patron is in the dining room and even when the decision process is being made whether to eat out. Menu design has widely been touted to help increase sales and hook prospects into a sale – but have you focused any attention on your menu to ensure its doing you justice? This article outlines 3 key tips restaurateurs should do to optimize their menus to get the most marketing mileage possible.

The 2013 Hospitality Market Report

Canadian Foodservice and Hospitality magazine detailed how the 2013 hospitality market fared in their annual report. One noteable quote from the report states that “while baby boomers represent a significant portion of restaurant sales at 26 per cent, millennials, in fact, represent 28 per cent of all restaurant meals consumed, NPD Group’s [Robert] Carter says. “A lot more operators are targeting that [group], because it’s the largest cohort next to boomers.” To read the full report including the state of the 2013 market, click here.

Catering

Staff Training That Pays Off

With service attributing highly to an event attendee’s overall satisfaction, caterers cannot afford poorly trained staff members working events. This article from Catersource has some excellent guidelines on how to train staff properly for events.

Take it outside: Adding more control to outdoor events

Many dream of having events outdoors during the warmer weather – but sometimes the anxiety associated with lack of control of the weather can deter those from actually making a go of it. While you can take the route of a more controlled indoor event, adding control to outdoor events is possible. Check out this article in Special Events Magazine on tips to ensure you select a caterer experienced with the outdoors.

Dominate the Catering Industry with These 5 Killer Techniques

Like most businesses, as a caterer, you’re looking to dominate your industry in a market filled with competition. In Toronto, when wedding season seems to last a few months, it takes a creative company to find new ways to generate revenue to ensure the “slow season” has a consistent revenue stream. Check out these 5 killer techniques you can employ to dominate your market.

Like most businesses, as a caterer, you’re looking to dominate your industry in a market filled with competition. In Toronto, when wedding season seems to last a few months, it takes a creative company to find new ways to generate revenue to ensure the “slow season” has a consistent revenue stream. Check out these 5 killer techniques you can employ to dominate your market.

Offer take-home catering to reap the benefits of a constant revenue stream during your low season

Take-home catering can be the solution you need to add a constant source of revenue throughout the year. With a culture that seems to be as fast paced as a NASCAR race, it’s not uncommon for consumers to pick up food from a restaurant, grocery store or a local catering company. What about those same consumers wanting to have friends over for a weekend gathering? By offering consumers the types of food they would pick up for a meal or a small event, you’re expanding your target market and positioning yourself as a go-to resource for meals and gatherings. Restaurants have expanded to offer take-home options – so why can’t you?

Negotiate an exclusive venue contract

In business, networking is an important facet of succeeding. The same is true with catering. Positioning your company alongside highly rated venues that suit your food style will not only help you gain more clients but also more industry contacts. Negotiating with a venue to become an exclusive caterer can be a competitive process but it can also help keep you busy year round. And while you will most likely have to pay dues to the venue, you have the added bonus of a venue’s marketing/sales staff spreading awareness about your catering company to all who want an event at their venue. To wet your feet with an exclusive catering contract, consider talking to new venues in the area as they may be more open to partnering with an exclusive caterer. Also make sure when searching for a venue you’d like to gain exclusivity with, to ensure that the venue hosts similar events to your culinary style – if you only cater weddings, and the venue only does corporate events for instance, your businesses may clash.

Launch a retail line of the food you’re most known for

Is there a hors d’oeuvre that leaves customers weak at the knees or a sweet treat that your customers rave about and order for their events time and time again? What about taking that best-selling item and launching a retail line with it? It’s a sure-fire way to expand your target market and broaden your reach to consumers who haven’t heard of your company before. It also ensures (assuming you keep the supply coming) that you’re able to have a consistent source of additional revenue. Restaurants have been doing this for decades and in our opinion it’s about time the culinary stars of catering grace consumers with their hit foods.

Broaden your footprint by offering educational cooking classes or team building for corporate events

Your most marketable skill (or that of your executive chef and culinary team) is your cooking skills. But everyone does not know how to cook. What about broadening your footprint in the market by offering educational cooking classes for the general public? It gets your name out there, provides value to potential customers and ensures your business and brand are first in their minds. Along the same lines of offering educational cooking classes, you could offer these as a form of team building for corporate events. Corporations are constantly looking for ways to build camaraderie that offers a new and exciting way to bond. Plus, they’re usually willing to pay more for the experience than a traditional consumer.

Promote attractive pricing for catering packages during the slow season for an uptick of weddings

Everyone likes a good bargain and with weddings costing a pretty penny (with the average price of a wedding ringing in at $27000), brides that aren’t set on a particular time of year would be more than willing to book in the off season to save money. Offering attractive pricing for catering packages during the slow season and promoting these packages can ensure you’re booking events during the slow season. Suddenly your business isn’t seasonal or cyclical in nature! To ensure you can offer lower pricing on catering packages, you need to ensure you have the best value on serving platters and other tabletop items.

Special Events Magazine released an insightful article last week that is a must-read piece of party rental and event rental predictions for the upcoming year. As part of their annual Special Events "30 Top Rental Companies" list, the top Party Rental companies across North America commented on the state of the industry and how they believe 2014 bodes for the industry as a whole. With the economy improving on a daily basis it seems the industry has seen year-over-year growth in 2013 with a positive yet conservative outlook for 2014 based on the lack of discounting death spirals occurring in the industry.

You can view the article in its entirety by clicking here. (Note – you will have to have a free membership in order to view the entire article)

What’s flying off the shelves?

A1 Party and Event Rental based in Covina, California noted in the article that “the trend is to provide many more options. People are demanding a much larger selection in all categories of inventory.” With the modern culture one of convenience and consumerism, this doesn’t come as a surprise but I often wonder if a Party and Event Rental company can truly survive by being one of many that offer the one-stop shop for party rental items. Wouldn’t it be better to take what you’re good at and target your customer market based on that? Perhaps you excel in tent, table and chair sales – why not become the best tent, table and chair rental company in your local area, state/province or country?

What Do You Believe?

At National Event Supply for example we’ve seen an uptick in the amount of folding tables and Chiavari chair sales. Our stemware has been gaining additional ground but that could just be because we’ve never stocked glass stemware and crystal stemware before. We’re also seeing larger than normal porcelain dinnerware orders leading us to believe the business forecast as predicted by the big rental companies is correct in its assumptions. If we’re selling more, that means our customers are turning around / renting out their inventory more.

Our Serenity Crystal stemware along with our Copa / Eclisse glassware is a popular choice for commercial businesses including party rental companies, caterers, hotels, restaurants and banquet halls. With crystal and glass bearing striking similarities in aesthetics, we thought it made sense to clear up some of the top asked questions.

What is the difference between glass and crystal?

There are a number of differences between glass and crystal that should be known before purchasing stemware. Glass tends to be thicker than crystal as crystal is stronger so it can be worked thinner than glass. While glass can look quite similar to crystal, if you hold up a piece of crystal stemware to the light, the crystal will act as a prism. Crystal also produces a musical tone when you run a wet finger along the rim or when struck, though I wouldn’t recommend striking a suppliers’ crystal – it might not leave the best impression. Glass also tends to have a rolled / rounded rim while crystal tends to have a clean, straight cut rim.

Traditional crystal contains lead. The lead addition adds sparkle, gives more weight to the stemware, and increases its durability. There can be health concerns associated with the addition of lead oxide so many suppliers now have lead-free crystal – which is what National Event Supply carries.

Is lead crystal safe?

Lead crystal has been the primary form of crystal glassware since its inception. With the recent awareness and movement away from BPA due to health concerns, there has been debate on the use of lead in crystal. It is advised that you should not use lead crystal containers to store beverages for periods of time longer than a day. As per Riedel’s website, assuming that "worldwide legal standards are met and also surpassed", there are no issues or concerns with using lead crystal on a daily basis.

How do you clean crystal & glass stemware?

Always make sure to ask the supplier this question before purchasing as there’s no hard and fast rule that all crystal needs to be hand washed and all glass can be placed in a dishwasher. For businesses that deal with large quantities of stemware, it is recommended you look for crystal or glass stemware that is dishwasher safe as this will allow you to turn around your inventory faster while utilizing less man hours to do so. Imagine having to clean the glassware for a 500 person event? Not a fast or easy job.  Being able to use a dishwasher can save you thousands of dollars. National Event Supply only offers Crystal and Glass stemware that is dishwasher safe – keeping our customer’s in mind.

Should I be purchasing handmade or machine made glassware?

This is really a matter of personal preference. Handmade crystal and glass can lack the consistency of machine made crystal and glass. Handmade crystal in particular can be more costly than machine made crystal as some manufacturers employ master craftsman to produce their crystal glasses. While machine made glass and crystal can lack the artisans touch, they generally look more consistent and can be less expensive depending on your supplier.

In case you haven’t already heard, National Event Supply will be exhibiting in Booth #340/441 October 27 & 28th 2013 at the BC Connect Show, BC’s largest foodservice and hospitality industry event which brings together thousands of food, drink and lodging decision makers. In our previous blog post, we highlighted the Five Reasons to Attend the BC Connect Show. With the BC Connect Show less than a week away, we thought it made sense to showcase what to expect to see from National Event Supply at the trade show.

With the addition of our warehouse in the Vancouver area, we can more easily, quickly and cost-effectively ship many of our products to BC, Alberta and the surrounding areas. Because of this, we’re able to showcase the following items at the show:

If you’re interested in getting a quote on some of our tabletop items, request a quote here. We look forward to seeing you at the show!