With over 30 years’ experience and 14 care homes, the family-run business creates a home away from home for the elderly.

Wellburn's Executive Chairman, Rachel Beckett, explains how they achieve this: “We try to make our homes as cosy and homely as possible. Quite often, care homes can have a hotel feel about them. That's just not what we're about.” With this homely feel already evident in their range of facilities and individual styles, Wellburn wanted to add this to their dining experiences too.

Rachel explains what Wellburn Care Homes focuses on: “We aim for a much more personal touch, drawing on the traditional and familiar feelings the thought of home conjures up. We want family members to be able to come here and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and feel relaxed and at home, whilst spending time with their loved ones.

Before working with apetito, each of Wellburn's 14 homes had its own team of cooks, preparing and serving food for its residents. Wellburn wanted to create consistent delicious meals that were of excellent quality and presentation across all their homes. apetito were called in to understand the way Wellburn worked before providing solutions to help them reach their goals.

“When I took over the business from my father, working closely with my team, we identified a few areas we thought could be improved. We decided to look for an external specialist that could help us maintain nutritional value in all the meals we were serving. From our very first meeting, I was convinced that they were exactly what we were looking for and could offer us everything we needed," Rachel explains.

Once they began working with each other, Rachel and her team were invited to visit apetito’s HQ in Trowbridge, to discuss how the partnership could benefit them. "The visit to Trowbridge sealed the deal for me," Rachel says, “The team were fantastic and having the opportunity to take a tour of the kitchen and meet some of the local farmers who supply apetito was invaluable.” It gave the Wellburn team a chance to understand the quality of food and dining experience they would be providing to their residents.

"They also walked us through the nutritional side of things, explaining how their ever-developing range of options meet all dietary requirements and how the menus are always being improved and developed to offer choice.

"It was clear they shared the same principles and values as we did and, because we're both family-owned businesses, that really resonated with me. The level of attention, communication and support we received from apetito from the get-go was pivotal and has helped us subsequently build a fantastic relationship."

When working with clients, apetito want their partnership to become an extension of their client’s business. Wellburn Care Homes were given healthy and delicious meals as well as ongoing support across wider areas of their operations.

Rachel explains: “We do a lot of marketing and events in-house, and apetito is always available for support and advice. We recently organised a festival in the grounds of our Grimston Court care home in York, in support of Age UK York and St Leonard’s Hospice. We welcomed over 2000 people on the day, and apetito's help and support at the event was fantastic. It's moments like that when I really appreciate just how much the partnership with them offers us."

As staff are key to the smooth running of the care homes, apetito trains them to feel confident with creating, serving and presenting their food.

This level of care and attention to staff was an aspect which really struck a chord with members of Wellburn's team. “We've just been through another round of apetito training,” says Rachel. “For the team, the training sessions have been hugely beneficial. Over the last few years, we've really focussed on the way our food is presented to our residents. I wanted to develop the kitchen staffs’ sense of ownership and make them feel included and part of the partnership, and apetito has played a huge part in helping us to achieve that."

Both apetito and Wellburn work collaboratively to create a seamless process of preparing and serving food. The menus have been extremely well received, with exceptional feedback from residents and their families.

apetito’s partnership with Wellburn is now in its third year and continues to thrive. Working around the core service of offering nutritious and tasty food to the residents, the partnership is developing other new exciting areas of collaboration. One currently being developed is the creation of a staff award scheme, which apetito will sponsor. The scheme aims to reinforce the sense of ownership among the team at Wellburn.

Interested in helping your care home reach new heights for your staff and residents? Contact our dedicated team today to learn about how we can make a difference to your business and customers.