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Firm Wins Royal Seal of Approval

From the Evening Press first published Tuesday 23rd Oct 2001
AN East Yorkshire company was today celebrating completion of a £500,000 contract to re-fit the kitchens of Buckingham Palace.
Holmes Catering Equipment Ltd, (HCE) based on the Full Sutton Estate, proved it could make kitchens fit for a queen four years ago when it renovated the massive main kitchen and several associated rooms in Windsor Castle..
The deal came as an early present for the firm which celebrates its 14th birthday next month - and it augurs well for the prospect of more Royal work - possibly at Balmoral.
The kitchen re-vamp was part of a total £6.1 million project and was the first update of that part of Buckingham Palace for 30 years
HCE's 45 staff spent months creating stainless steel work counters, sinks, benches, hot cupboards plus ventilation canopies at the firm's workshops near Stamford Bridge.
These had to exactly configure with the curves and bumps in the walls of the Edwardian kitchens. A team of four spent seven weeks carefully fitting the equipment which will be used to prepare feasts in the state banqueting room.
The company supplies tailor-made kitchens to a growing list of top companies like the Bank of England, Tesco Stores Ltd, Goldman Sachs International and Edinburgh Woollen Mills. It generates a turnover of more than £4 million.
So great has been its workload over the past two years that it has extended its factory by more than a third, with a recent 5,500 sq ft added to the 17,500 sq ft premises.
Company chairman Brian Holmes described the palace contract as "another terrific feather in our cap" but hoped that the Royal successes would not put off smaller concerns from getting quotes.
"We don't want people thinking that because we deal with Royal contracts that we charge right royal prices.
"If a little cafe in York needs something doing they will be priced in exactly the same reasonable way.
"We won the Buckingham Palace contract on price as well as quality."
Although he could have supplied everything, the Palace preferred to keep some of its tried and tested equipment. "You should have seen it - old baking ovens and boilers which have been there for at least 100 years."
Mr Holmes said: "We've heard on the grapevine that there will be some reconstruction work at Balmoral and we might be in with a shot for that if we tried