Levy-Peppermint to raise hospitality ‘bar’

Article posted by Coliseum, July 6^th, 2022

Image: Populous

Levy UK + Ireland, the market leading sports and hospitality caterer, have taken a 50 percent stake in multiaward winning bars and event solutions business, Peppermint.

‘Compass UK’ stated that this follows a successful partnership over the past year which saw Peppermint bring unparalleled drinks-led expertise and support at venues across the Levy portfolio, including the 62,850-capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, the 67,500-capacity Cheltenham Racecourse in England, the 42,682-capacity Villa Park in England, the 51,700-capacity Aviva Stadium in Dublin (Ireland), and more. The success of this partnership is set to expand throughout the Levy estate in 2022 and beyond, targeting growth through existing and complementary sectors.

Levy UK + Ireland is the catering and hospitality partner to many of United Kingdom’s iconic sport, leisure, heritage, performing venues, conference and exhibition centers. Their recipe for success is to create celebrated food and drink experiences and putting their partners and guests first. They are the name behind great experiences.

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Peppermint delivers promoters and event owners complimentary event solutions that add true value to every event – and deliver the best bottomline results. Built on a solid 18 years of experience delivering high performance retail bar solutions to the United Kingdom’s best events.

‘Compass UK’ further stated that this exciting joint venture will see Peppermint continue to grow its core business in events and festivals, but with the added backing from Levy, who bring additional support in retail innovation, sustainability initiatives and access to Levy’s world-class hospitality delivery businesses. This partnership delivers a truly powerful and unique combined skill set which will deliver significant benefit to clients of both businesses.

Peppermint is the brainchild of Alex Brooke and Adam Hempenstall, who met at university where they both promoted student events. They founded the business in 2003 with an ambition to shake up the events market and bring fresh event concepts into this space. The duo soon found themselves delivering bars at a number of the first ever boutique music festivals, with their clients looking to go above and beyond the standard beer bars available at the time. Almost 20 years later Peppermint’s passion is stronger than ever and now services over 40 events every year, including the world-class American Express presents BST Hyde Park.

American Express presents BST Hyde Park – or British Summer Time Hyde Park to some – brings a host of the world’s biggest artistes to the famous London Park for a series of events each Summer.

Very much in line with Levy, Peppermint’s DNA has always been simple: Invest in innovation and people. The deal will see both Alex and Adam continue to run the business alongside Operations Director Jon Reid.

Said Jon Davies, Managing Director of Levy UK + Ireland, “Levy is thrilled to invest in a business as passionate as us when it comes to improving and delivering the finest customer experience. The introduction came from AEG, our partners at the O2, who Peppermint also works alongside – a great example of how mutual partners and like-minded businesses can work together. Our commitment to the consumer journey using leading edge technology and data insight matched with Peppermint’s award-winning capabilities will be a force to be reckoned with.”

Added Davies, “Partnering with one of the most innovative and reputable specialists across the United Kingdom’s hospitality industry to provide our clients and their fans with the best when it comes to choice, quality and service is central to our strategy. We will go from strength to strength to deliver the very best drinks-led experiences across our sports and entertainment portfolio, as well as pursuing new commercial opportunities both in the UK’s vibrant festival and events scene and new complementary markets.”

Stated Alex Brooke, Co-Founder at Peppermint, “This is an exciting new chapter in Peppermint’s history. The natural evolution of our business is to build on our work in Greenfield events into the sports sector and continue adding real value to our Levy partnership and the contracts and venues they operate. What’s more, coming together with Levy to further grow within the events and festival sector is an extremely powerful combination, enabling high volume, high quality and highly produced environments with the hospitality, catering and street food skills of Levy and its partner businesses.”

Added Adam Hempenstall, also a Co-Founder at Peppermint, “Working with the Levy team over the past year has been incredibly positive and we are excited to have found a partner that shares our values and passion to lead from the front when it comes to recognizing and developing our people. We also share the urgency in delivering sustainability across our industry, with a shared goal for net zero by 2027, one of the most aggressive in our industry.”

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