A Crewe company which specialises in providing software solutions to the hospitality sector is celebrating its 20th birthday with a big push to expand across the USA.
Centegra was founded in 2002 and boasts big name brands including Leon, Coco Di Mama, Neat Burger, Honest Burgers and Bakers+Baristas and Patty&Bun as customers.
The company works with the hospitality sector and was the first to provide cloud-based point of sales systems to the hospitality industry, to improve customer service and help restaurants and food chains become more efficient and effective.
Over the last two decades Centegra has grown significantly. It started with three employees but now has a team of over 25 who are continuing to develop new technologies to support the fast-changing hospitality industry.
In 2016 they introduced their flagship cloud-based hospitality technology solution, Centegra Plus. It automates, integrates and consolidates sales channels, inventory and revenue management into one platform, allowing clients to view real-time dashboards and receive reports on every aspect of their restaurants.
Chief Executive Officer Tom Bell said: “We are delighted to be celebrating our 20th birthday. The hospitality industry has changed massively over the past two decades and we have changed with it. We were the first UK company to provide cloud-based solutions for this sector which is an achievement we are very proud of.
He added: “I think our expertise in automation and these digital services has contributed to our success and longevity. We focused primarily on the UK hospitality sector to begin with but over time we’ve moved into Europe and the USA. The pandemic stifled our growth plans to expand into these areas more but despite that last year was one of our best trading years yet. The restaurants we worked with continued to operate a delivery and collection service and our platforms were integral to that which meant we were able to support our customers during the various lockdowns.”
After its strong financial performance last year and its ongoing partnerships with big name brands, some of which have been in place since the restaurant chains themselves were launched, Centegra is now looking to increase its market share across Europe and the USA. They are aiming to have hit the 200-site mark in the USA within the next year.
Tom added: “As I said Covid did put a temporary stop to our expansion plans overseas but now that travel isn’t an issue, over the next 12 months we are looking to build on our existing relationships and forge new ones to increase our footprint across Europe and America.
“We have invested a huge amount in the technology we use to help develop, update and change our systems to meet our customers’ needs and demands which are constantly evolving. If you take our partnership with LEON Restaurants for example – we have worked with them from their very beginning in 2004. We recently installed solutions for LEON’s first ever drive-thru in Leeds and well as at one of their sites in the Netherlands. As the brands we work with grow and move into new areas overseas, we expect our footprint to grow too, and we will continue to tailor our solutions to meet each of those client’s specific needs.” he said.
Centegra’s Managing Director Jon Horsfield said when he joined the business 16 years ago the hospitality industry looked very different: “Operations were starting to become more reliant on tech in simple ways back then – sending tickets to the kitchen automatically, collating bill information etc. It was more about stopping manual errors and looking at early forms of consolidated reporting. When we launched the first web-based point of sale system for hospitality, the ability to get figures overnight from all stores from any PC connected (via dial up modem!) was revolutionary. Since then, it’s changed significantly – tech has become absolutely critical to running any hospitality operation. The biggest change was the ability to have cloud-based systems that use broadband. This was a massive shift to allow for real-time reporting/updating of systems and out platforms have been at the very core of that change. These are exciting times for Centegra and for our team. As we continue to support more clients our team will grow too so I am sure more job opportunities will be created soon.”
To find out more about Centegra go to: www.centegra.co.uk call 01270 585200 or email contactus@centegra.co.uk
