Cath Preston
Born in Liverpool, Cath (46) came to Sheffield Poly, now Hallam University, to study politics and economics. And like many a student, she never got round to leaving! She now lives in Walkley with her husband and is between cats.
She was too interested in student life to complete her degree, instead Cath started putting student and leisure magazines together which necessitated a fast learning curve on selling advertising space. Drifting back to Liverpool for a year, Cath found herself in what she calls a dead end job selling “situations vacant” in the last 80s- when there were no situations vacant!
A friend asked her to come back to Sheffield to help with another magazine project, a spell temping and in “the dullest job on the planet” at Yorkshire Water sending out any one of three standard letters to customers followed. Then in 1990 Cath joined an Attercliffe catering supplier where she rose to manager over the next ten years, along the way recruiting the colleague who would later become her business partner.
“We just decided we could do better ourselves”, says Cath. “In 2000, we started 3-Source: me, my partner and a lad to help us. We supplied stainless steel cutlery to airlines, everything was going really well- then came 9/11. Stainless steel was immediately replaced by plastic on all airline catering, even first class, the bottom just dropped out of our market. Fortunately, as a small young business, we could respond immediately. We diversified into supplying cutlery for the public sector and added crockery to our airline product range.”
Around three years later and the last Concorde flight brought the use of plastic cutlery back into focus, Cath remembers. “The high end started demanding their proper knives and forks. First class just wasn’t the same without a Sheffield knife and fork! The FAA came up with new requirements, such as a more rounded shape, shorter tines on forks and no serrated knife blades which the industry quickly complied with, and we were off again. By then we had added bar ware and serving ware to our airline ranges.”
From Sheffield-finished teapots carefully custom- designed to fit standard cabin systems such as Monarch and Air Lingus, to the Sheffield-made ice tongs and salad servers used on the luxurious Royal Jordanian Airlines, or the wine buckets and champagne re-sealers of Qatar, Cath is supplying it.
“I’ve noticed the more people are paying for a ticket in first class, the more alcohol they are likely to drink” smiles Cath.”I think it must be because these business people, mostly men, are being chauffeured to and from the airport, so the bar ware becomes a big part of the customer experience. It’s fantastic to play our part in continuing to spread Sheffield’s name for world class cutlery abroad, I just hope the airline’s customers are sober enough to appreciate the quality!”
For the past year or so, Cath has quietly been expanding the business into the hotel and restaurant market, and with her business partner moving on, she is now keen to establish a whole separate brand to capitalise on our growing love of eating out. “When I grew up, eating out was a rare treat reserved for birthdays and special occasion- usually a quick trip to the local Berni Inn”, recalls Cath, “We expect so much more in terms of variety and regularity now. Eating out could be calling in to a well-priced restaurant for a quick pizza, curry or burger after work, just as well as the gastropub or silver service fine dining. I am so looking forward to launching our new brand, still under wraps until September, to the whole range of the eating out market. I felt the 3-Source brand had become associated with large scale public sector contract work- it’s become all pallets, couriers, warehousing and weights. Our new brand Ware4All will really appeal to the restaurant market- it’s tactile, all about the feel and the look, how the crockery and cutlery will enhance the chef’s food and add to the customer’s dining experience. It’s exciting and sensuous.”
With such a long history of specialising in the catering industry, one might expect Cath to be a budding Masterchef- but not at all. “I leave all that to my husband who is an excellent cook”, laughs Cath. “I think it was being brought up by a mum who was hopeless in the kitchen and cremated just about everything she touched. I simply never learned the skills or appreciation, but my expertise came in useful choosing the beautiful contents of the kitchen I recently had handmade by a Sheffield craftsman to my exact specification. Extra deep corner spaces for my platters and bespoke units. Heaven for the woman called the ‘queen of crockery and cutlery’!
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