Milk no sugar please Mel, I'm sweet enough

[WestKentRam]

A very kind offer, and I do like a freebie as much as the next person. However a piping hot drink on a chilly evening is a recipe for missing most of the second half going backwards and forwards to the toilet.

[maydrakin]

Whilst the offer is much appreciated, (Mel is great, isn't he?)  I don't drink any hot drinks, so that'll be one less they'll need to cater for...

[Boycie]

Can we have the equivalent in cash as we leave the ground?

£3.20 in yer sky rocket and a pat on the back.

[rammieib]

6 hours ago, Shang said:

I'm not sure but I don't think DCFC have catering in-house, an external company manage it on a license basis.

So what Mel is doing is effectively buying a drink for everyone from the catering company, and if fans spend more it'll go into the pockets of the external company.

Yes it is outsourced (Geddaw I think), I'm just saying that in my opinion this has cost him circa £500, maybe £1000 at most. The catering company will make more money overall (Although to be fair the mark up they will lose on tea/coffee's they would have sold will be huge) and its win win for everyone. An outlay of £1k from Mel (probably change in his pocket) and he gains a lot of respect from supporters although it needs to be handled correctly on the night.

I am not knocking it at all, it's nice of him to sort this out for us all, just saying if anyone thinks he is spending £50k on tea and coffee they need to have their head examined.

[G STAR RAM]

8 hours ago, rammieib said:

Yes it is outsourced (Geddaw I think), I'm just saying that in my opinion this has cost him circa £500, maybe £1000 at most. The catering company will make more money overall (Although to be fair the mark up they will lose on tea/coffee's they would have sold will be huge) and its win win for everyone. An outlay of £1k from Mel (probably change in his pocket) and he gains a lot of respect from supporters although it needs to be handled correctly on the night.

I am not knocking it at all, it's nice of him to sort this out for us all, just saying if anyone thinks he is spending £50k on tea and coffee they need to have their head examined.

What makes you think the catering company would give him about 99% discount on the drinks?

[uttoxram75]

Can we have a free mince pie with the cuppa.

Me and mozza will have @AndyinLiverpool 's and @Mostyn6 's, if that's alright.

[Curtains]

1 hour ago, uttoxram75 said:

Can we have a free mince pie with the cuppa.

Me and mozza will have @AndyinLiverpool 's and @Mostyn6 's, if that's alright.

You ain't having mine. 

[rammieib]

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

What makes you think the catering company would give him about 99% discount on the drinks?

Because Mel is too smart not to negotiate a good deal.

[Shang]

I've heard the idea is to bring everything in-house, but they have to wait for contracts to expire.

[Van der MoodHoover]

13 minutes ago, Shang said:

I've heard the idea is to bring everything in-house, but they have to wait for contracts to expire.

Wasn't that catering outsourcing deal tom glicks finest hour?  Seem to remember a big fuss being made about 5 years ago which probably ties in neatly with your information on the contract expiry. 

[Rev]

Mel's on this week's Fantasy football club on Sky  (Fri 5.30).

He sure does keep a low profile that one, if it wasn't for the feature on the OS I'd have no idea.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, rammieib said:

Because Mel is too smart not to negotiate a good deal.

Makes you wonder if he is able to get a company to agree a loss making scheme, when we will see Messi in Derby colours, I mean it's only a matter of time before he strikes a deal to bring him here for 6 cans of larger and a bag of crisps....bet he can even get him to agree to play for free to......

[Wolfie]

4 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

Makes you wonder if he is able to get a company to agree a loss making scheme,

When you think about it, most of the costs with the hot drinks are fixed and so it doesn't matter that much if you make 200 cups of tea or 1000. how much does a teabag and bit of hot water cost?. They'll be getting some level of compensation from the club for their costs & I'm sure Mel's people will be telling them their future sales will be bigger when people et the taste for a half-time cuppa.

[HeyHudson]

Quote

The offer will be available from when the turnstiles open at 6:15pm and will run until ten minutes into the second half.

Fans will be able to receive their drink by visiting the kiosks in the concourses, which will be open throughout the first half. Further distribution points will also be available to cover for the expected high demand and at half-time drinks will also be available from the Marathonbet betting booths.

http://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/article/derby-county-chairman-mel-morris-offers-free-hot-drink-to-all-supporters-2841995.aspx

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Wolfie said:

When you think about it, most of the costs with the hot drinks are fixed and so it doesn't matter that much if you make 200 cups of tea or 1000. how much does a teabag and bit of hot water cost?. They'll be getting some level of compensation from the club for their costs & I'm sure Mel's people will be telling them their future sales will be bigger when people et the taste for a half-time cuppa.

I did think about it, it would make no business sense from the catering side to block the paying customer from getting a drink + food, unless they were compensated for it.

what would the estimated takings be during a half time game, let's say they lose the custom of 4000 * 3 quid = 12k, if there are 13 home games left then you need 307 of these people to buy a coffee each remaining game to just break even, and that's not taking into account anyone who goes to burger van for food instead because of the queue.

[JW37]

On 08 December 2015 at 20:34, ketteringram said:

Think we've had 30,000 maybe once this season. Boro? Maybe one other?

Pedantic mode off.

Charlton - 29,045

Boro - 30,855

Leeds - 29,834

Burnley - 26,834

Brentford - 29,467

Wolves - 29,063

Rotherham - 30,172

QPR - 28,502

Cardiff - 29,526

So Boro AND Rotherham actually ha.

 

[rammieib]

24 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

I did think about it, it would make no business sense from the catering side to block the paying customer from getting a drink + food, unless they were compensated for it.

what would the estimated takings be during a half time game, let's say they lose the custom of 4000 * 3 quid = 12k, if there are 13 home games left then you need 307 of these people to buy a coffee each remaining game to just break even, and that's not taking into account anyone who goes to burger van for food instead because of the queue.

OK - Firstly a cup of tea is not £3, but £2.30 at DCFC. (£0.22 above the National Average).

Secondly - of that £2.30, £0.38 is VAT. So a true charge of a cup of team is £1.92

Agree the margin after overheads/direct costs are taken into consideration on a cup of tea is ridiculous - probably leaving around £1.60 of profit.

So without this free offer, how many cup's of tea would the caterers have sold - circa 1000 maybe, if that? I'll go with it - so £1600 of profit has been lost.

Right - if 10,000 people get a free drink on the night - I've agreed a really generous operating cost of £0.32. So if Mel covers that operating cost you have a charge to Mel of £3,200.

Right - this is where Mel is smart though:

1) Some of that operating cost is overheads they'd be paying anyway. Electricity, people etc

2) If an extra 5000 go to the tills, and 1000 of them now buy a pint/burger/chocolate bar etc there will be than be £1.60 in the profits generated per customer in additional revenue. Thus the catering company will benefit from this.

3) There is a good chance of repeat custom for the catering company at additional matches when everyone remembers how great that free cup of tea was - repeat custom = additional income.

Based on the above, my earlier comment of £500-£1000 for Mel's comment could be a little understated but I certainly wouldn't go above £2,000 in what this will cost him.

Well - if this offer just helps persuade an extra 100 people to buy a ticket for the game, the income generated there off sets this £2k and that's £2k less Mel needs to put into the club in the future to keep us inline with FFP. I sincerely doubt this offer has been looked at this way though.

All I'm saying - Mel is using a very simple cheap method to win over people/increase his leverage with the supporters. Fair play, I'd do exactly the same thing.

I still find it strange though pre-season he said he wanted to keep a low profile - now he's making TV appearances!

 

 

[G STAR RAM]

44 minutes ago, rammieib said:

OK - Firstly a cup of tea is not £3, but £2.30 at DCFC. (£0.22 above the National Average).

Secondly - of that £2.30, £0.38 is VAT. So a true charge of a cup of team is £1.92

Agree the margin after overheads/direct costs are taken into consideration on a cup of tea is ridiculous - probably leaving around £1.60 of profit.

So without this free offer, how many cup's of tea would the caterers have sold - circa 1000 maybe, if that? I'll go with it - so £1600 of profit has been lost.

Right - if 10,000 people get a free drink on the night - I've agreed a really generous operating cost of £0.32. So if Mel covers that operating cost you have a charge to Mel of £3,200.

Right - this is where Mel is smart though:

1) Some of that operating cost is overheads they'd be paying anyway. Electricity, people etc

2) If an extra 5000 go to the tills, and 1000 of them now buy a pint/burger/chocolate bar etc there will be than be £1.60 in the profits generated per customer in additional revenue. Thus the catering company will benefit from this.

3) There is a good chance of repeat custom for the catering company at additional matches when everyone remembers how great that free cup of tea was - repeat custom = additional income.

Based on the above, my earlier comment of £500-£1000 for Mel's comment could be a little understated but I certainly wouldn't go above £2,000 in what this will cost him.

Well - if this offer just helps persuade an extra 100 people to buy a ticket for the game, the income generated there off sets this £2k and that's £2k less Mel needs to put into the club in the future to keep us inline with FFP. I sincerely doubt this offer has been looked at this way though.

All I'm saying - Mel is using a very simple cheap method to win over people/increase his leverage with the supporters. Fair play, I'd do exactly the same thing.

I still find it strange though pre-season he said he wanted to keep a low profile - now he's making TV appearances!

 

 

You think 100 people are going to pay £20-£30 for a match ticket to get a £2-30 cup of tea free

[G STAR RAM]

1 hour ago, Wolfie said:

When you think about it, most of the costs with the hot drinks are fixed and so it doesn't matter that much if you make 200 cups of tea or 1000. how much does a teabag and bit of hot water cost?. They'll be getting some level of compensation from the club for their costs & I'm sure Mel's people will be telling them their future sales will be bigger when people et the taste for a half-time cuppa.

Did he not make a comment about the price of a cup of tea being ridiculous?

If so, doubt he is that bothered about increasing their future sales!

[Wolfie]

10 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Did he not make a comment about the price of a cup of tea being ridiculous?

If so, doubt he is that bothered about increasing their future sales!

Maybe more interesting if he's planning to bring it back in-house.

Look, we're talking small numbers anyway in the grand scheme of things. Worth it for all the good publicity him & the club are getting out of it.