Spice

Q&A
Peter Rowland
goes national
Melbourne caterer Peter Rowland has
announced plans to expand its operations
nationally, heralding a new era for the
57-year-old company. Here, Brittney Levinson
speaks to CEO Emma Yee for all the details
about the company’s growth plans.
Q: What has your journey with Peter Rowland looked like?
A: I started with Peter Rowland almost 10 years ago. I was general manager,
operations, so I had a large portfolio within my division and that kept growing.
I ended up on the executive team within about four years and I was one of the
first women on the executive team, so that was pretty exciting. Then I became
the acting CEO and then the CEO in 2017. I’ve always been one for wanting
more, so I quite happily took on more responsibility so I could see all different
parts of the business.
Q: How has the brand evolved since the
investment by Capital Alliance in 2017?
A: Investment from Capital Alliance and [its founder and CEO] Mohan Du
has allowed us to refinance and restructure the business to become the most
diverse hospitality company in Australia with divisions across private catering
and events, commercial catering, major events, venue catering, retail and
e-commerce. Peter Rowland has been nourishing Melbourne for 57 years and
our chairman Mr Peter Rowland created a business that set a benchmark for
contemporary catering in the second half of the twentieth century. Our intention
is to create and set the benchmark for the hospitality business of the future. We
have the heritage, expertise, resources and importantly, the energy to do that.
Q: Which states are you looking to bring Peter
Rowland to as part of the expansion?
A: We are launching first in Sydney, where we have acquired a catering company
that has the kitchen and the ready-to-go workforce. I am envisioning it’ll
probably take us a little bit of time to settle in, as we like to do things right.
We will make further announcements as we roll out our strategy across
the east coast and ultimately the west coast of Australia. For us it’s all about
surprising everybody and doing things differently.
Peter Rowland
venue Butler Lane
Q: Where do you see the brand
positioning itself in Sydney?
A: Our strategy is for diversification and scale. We
intend to replicate our successful business model in
Sydney and roll out the full Peter Rowland portfolio
of catering and events, bespoke commercial catering,
major events and venue catering and we are excited
about expanding our e-commerce offer.
Peter Rowland has been operating in the corporate
sector in Sydney and Canberra for several years so
we have an existing workforce and market insight.
Q: What areas of the food and
beverage industry are you most
passionate about in 2019?
A: As a group, we believe the world is changing
and so is the way we eat, so for all our menus we
look at our suppliers, the food miles, where it’s
coming from and how it’s grown. The Kitchen,
our partnership with Woolworths, in Double Bay,
Sydney is the perfect example of this – it’s about
whole foods and clean eating.
The other thing we are passionate about, and I am
really passionate about, is hospitality as an industry
that offers exciting and substantial careers for young
people. I think hospitality is starting to be looked at
as a career and not just a transient market segment.
We spend a lot of time talking to the TAFEs and
we get a lot of the students straight out of William
Angliss – I was a William Angliss student. We
have apprentices and we like to nurture them and
watch them grow. We have a number of employees
that have done their apprenticeships with Peter
Rowland and are still here and over 57 years we
have launched the careers of many of Australia’s
leading chefs and hospitality professionals. We, as a
business, are quite passionate about that. n
www.spicenews.com.au 31