Oxfordshire CC rebrands school dining rooms following Carillion collapse

Following the collapse of Carillion, Oxfordshire County Council decided to bring the catering service for its 54 primary schools in house, alongside a major rebrand to instil confidence in the service.

Gail Witchell, Principal Officer for Oxfordshire County Council lead the project and appointed Elygra Marketing Services to submit artwork for approval. Designs were produced for the branding scheme including menu boards, inserts, header and footer panels for the servery areas as well as some bespoke items. In addition to the generic items, a number of schools required ‘made to measure’ bespoke designs to dress the counters.

The first installation met the deadline at the beginning of May and roll-out across the county continued throughout May and June. The scheme was completed to schedule in the final week of July.

Principal Officer for Oxfordshire County Council, Gail Witchell said: “It was undoubtedly a serious challenge that we had set ourselves, in re-branding 54 schools in such a short space of time and most importantly to a quality standard that would meet our ambitions. I am delighted to say that the whole project was delivered to our complete satisfaction, on time and to budget. From concept and design to the final screw going into the wall, Elygra were a pleasure to work with. They were thoroughly professional and worked at a pace that enabled us to meet our deadlines; importantly for us they worked around school lunchtimes so no disruption was caused. This was a real bonus.”

Operations Manager for Oxfordshire County Council, Jo Baldwin added: “Since taking the school catering service back in-house following the Carillion collapse, it was key to our strategy that we gave our dining areas a distinct identity, creating an image that appealed to our customers – the pupils – and, long term, increased the take-up of school meals by offering a warm and friendly environment in which to dine”. Jo continues, “Following the re-brand, there is no doubt that our dining areas are so much brighter and more appealing and with our new menu offerings, the school meals service once again has a positive future. To have transformed the look and feel of the service and complete all we have in a couple of school terms has been hard work, but well worth it. A huge vote of thanks goes out to our catering teams, our managers, the supply chain, the schools for trusting in us and Elygra Marketing services.”